g«^i*«g«iaa8»«s3«»i^^ 
 
X 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 
 
 Received October, 1894, 
 zAccessions No . jG ^f ^ . Cla&s No, 
 
 
 
 
 

Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/endlesspunishmenOOneherich 
 
ENDLESS PUNISHMENT: 
 
 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT FOR, AND REASONABLENESS OF 
 FUTURE ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 NEIIEMIAH ADAMS, D. D., 
 
 li 
 
 PASTOR OF UNION CHURCH, BOSTON ; AUTHOR 
 
 OF "at eventide," etc. 
 
 |UHT«tSiT' 
 
 BOSTOI^: 
 
 D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY, 
 Cor. Fkanklin and Hawley Sts. 
 
4^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 
 1878, 
 By D. LoTHROP & Co. 
 
 Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
 No. 19 Spring Lane. 
 
COERBSPONDEl^CB. 
 
 Boston. 
 Bev. S. Cobb, Editor of the Christian Freeman, 
 
 Dear Sir : I have received your printed note in your paper 
 of the 25th ult., in which you say : 
 
 "And now I respectfully invite you. and proffer you the 
 columns of the Christian Freeman for the work, to show the 
 Scripturalness of future, endless punishment. This will 
 afford you an opportunity to carry your strongest reasons into 
 several thousands of Universalist families ; and I earnestly 
 hope that you will accept my proposition." 
 
 The form in which you propose that I should do this, viz., 
 by an exposition of isolated proof texts, each to be debated 
 by you before I proceed to another, does not strike me 
 favorably. I will comply with your invitation, if you will 
 allow me to do it in my own way, — upon one condition, that 
 there shall be no notes or comments on what I write in the 
 number or numbers of your paper containing my communica- 
 tion. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 N. ADAMS. 
 
 Bepresentations have been made in some of the public 
 prints respecting the nature and intention of the following 
 article, which are wholly at variance with my design. I am 
 
 5 
 
6 COBKESPONDENCE. 
 
 entering into no controversy, — this being the only article 
 which I have at any time expected to prepare for the paper. 
 Having been invited to preach in Hollis Street Church a 
 sermon, prepared for my own congregation, on the Reasona- 
 bleness of Endless Punishment, I was not at liberty, of course, 
 to present any other view than that which the sermon contained, 
 incomplete as all such presentations must be without a scrip- 
 tural argument. While I was purposing to make, on some 
 future occasion, a statement of the scriptural view, both of 
 the nature and extent, of future retribution, an invitation to 
 write on that subject in this paper unexpectedly occurred. 
 I proceed, therefore, to fulfil my original purpose, and respect- 
 fiilly submit the following statement, with no thought of con- 
 tinuing the discussion. N. A. 
 
INTRODUCTOEY REMARKS. 
 
 The invitation from the editor of this paper to make a 
 statement of views which the " several thousands of families " 
 who, it is said, will read this paper, repudiate, imposes a respon- 
 sible, yet, for some reasons, a gratifying task. The names of 
 not a few among my ministerial brethren occur to me, in 
 whose able and more competent hands I would gladly place 
 this labor, both for the gratification of the reader, and, as I 
 view it, for the truth's sake. I feel encouraged in this work 
 by the comparative regard which many in this denomination 
 profess for the Bible. They do not assail it, as the manner 
 of some is who differ from us ; but their desire to make it 
 speak in their favor secures for it an acknowledgment of its 
 authority. As an illustration of this remark, I refer to a 
 Review of Rev. T. S. King's " Two Discourses," by Rev. 
 Dr. Thomas Whittemore, in the Universalist Quarterly and 
 General Review, October, 1858. Dr. W. says : "It seems to 
 us impossible to preserve the public reverence for the Bible, 
 if we suffer ourselves to speak about it as Mr. King has done." 
 " The four Gospels, according to Mr. K., are mere shreds and 
 
 7 
 
8 INTKODUCTORY. 
 
 tatters of what Christ taught. His maimer of teaching was 
 so peculiar, and so poetical and fanciful, that it is quite a 
 wonder that we have even those tatters." '*He (Mr. K.) 
 speaks of God choosing to instruct the Church through a few 
 fragmentary flashes of poetry. Good God! What an idea 
 of revelation ! What an idea of Jesus as a teacher ! He has 
 lost sight of * the true light which lighteth every man that 
 Cometh into the world.' " (p. 377.) 
 
 Inasmuch as nothing hut the clearest conviction that this 
 doctrine of endless retribution is revealed in the Bible would 
 allow us for a moment to believe and inculcate the fearful 
 truth, which all who believe it receive with the most solemn 
 awe, it awakens confidence and friendly feeling to think that 
 the most of those who will read this article, thus regard the 
 testimony of Scripture, explained by the ordinary rules of 
 language, to be of binding authority. 
 
 I have also been led to think of this denomination as includ- 
 ing many who are much exercised in their minds on the subject 
 of future punishment. It is a welcome effort to show such 
 individuals that some of their thoughts with regard to this 
 subject and its advocates, are, perhaps, disproportioned and 
 exaggerated. The most of those who believe in future, end- 
 less punishment, have far more peace of mind with regard 
 to it than they appear to have who deny it ; for with evangeli- 
 cal believers it sinks into its just proportion in the universal 
 government of God, as the State's Prison, Courts of Law, 
 Offices of Justice, blend, like the tonic clement of iron in the 
 blood, into the life of a commonwealth with its virtuous and 
 happy homes, its hundreds of thousands of joyous children, 
 its churches, its products, its whole prosperous tide of affairs. 
 Though hell is not the central figure in the religious ideas of 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 9 
 
 evangelical Christians, the belief in future, endless retribution 
 does exert its powerful influence upon us. We know that it 
 is capable of vast abuse, as we see illustrated in the direful 
 influe/nce of its perversion by the Church of Rome. But we 
 find it explicitly revealed, and " knowing, therefore, the 
 terrors of the Lord, we persuade men." If it were preached 
 still more aflfectionately and plainly by us, conscious of our 
 ill desert and of our obligations to redeeming love, there 
 would be a nearer approach to the apostolic model. Our pre- 
 vailing associations with this doctrine, we are happy to say, 
 are those of deliverance, through the atoning death of the 
 Son of God. It is in connection with his sacrifice for us that 
 we always endeavor to preach it ; so that we trust we may say 
 concerning our system of faith, as it is said of heaven, ''the 
 Lamb is the light thereof." While we believe that the con- 
 templation of future misery, apart from the cross of Christ, 
 would be hurtful to the mind and heart, we also feel that it 
 cannot be of healthful tendency with our moral natures to 
 base our religious associations mainly on the one idea of 
 opposition to endless punishment. An evil thing, real or 
 imaginary, which we inordinately, or upon wrong principles, 
 oppose, has a retroactive influence on our minds and hearts, 
 corresponding to its own baleful nature. 
 
 It is with such views that I how write, — not, principally, 
 with antagonists in my mind, though my statements will meet 
 with antagonism, — so that if any are persuaded by counter 
 statements that these views are unscriptural, they will do me 
 the favor, at least, to think of me as their sincere well-wisher 
 and friend, and as one who has the same eternal interests 
 embarked in this question as themselves. Let us also keep 
 in mind that mere argumentation never convinces men of 
 
10 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 \ 
 
 scriptural truths, but that there must be on our part an expe- 
 rience, wrought by the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer, to 
 interpret things aright, which otherwise will be stumbling- 
 blocks and foolishness. But, without further preface, I pro- 
 ceed to my argument. 
 
SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT 
 
 roR 
 
 FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 
 
 11 
 
S^*^ Of XHl"^^ 
 
 [nirivBRsiT7); 
 
 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT 
 
 FOE 
 
 FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Scriptures teach that there is a penalty 
 for disobedience awaiting the finally impen- 
 itent. 
 
 THIS is plainly declared in Rom. ii. 5-12, 16 : 
 " But after thy hardness and impenitent 
 heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against 
 the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous 
 judgment of God, who will render to every man 
 according to his deeds : to them who, by patient 
 continuance in well doing, seek for glory, and 
 honor, and immortality, eterual life ; but unto 
 them that are contentious, and do not obey the 
 truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and 
 wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul 
 
14 SCEIPTUBAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 of man that doetli evil; of the Jew first, and 
 also of the Gentile : but glory, honor, and peace 
 to every man that worketh good; to the Jew 
 first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no 
 respect of persons with God. For as many as 
 have sinned without law, shall also perish with- 
 out law ; and as many as have sinned in the law, 
 shall be judged by the law," ''in the day when 
 God shall judge the secrets of m^en by Jesus 
 Christ according to my gospel." The paren- 
 thetic passages omitted here, which occur before 
 the last of these sentences, are a direct assertion 
 of the full accountableness of the heathen world 
 to the tribunal of God, for their sins against 
 their consciences and the light of nature. I 
 take this whole passage of Scripture as a reve- 
 lation of a future judgment and retribution, in 
 which all men are to be judged and treated 
 according to their works. 
 
 The ideas which are presented of heaven, both 
 by Christ and his apostles, come to us through 
 objects of sense. Every one supposes that by 
 these images, as, for example, " sitting with 
 Christ at his table in his kingdom," ''new wine," 
 "beholding his glory," and 'Agates of pearl," 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 15 
 
 "streets of gold," ''harps" and "crowns," it is 
 intended to give ns the idea of the highest 
 pleasure of which our natures, body and soul, 
 shall in another world be capable. We never 
 subtract anything from these images of heavenly 
 joy, saying, They are only metaphors ; we rather 
 say. Language here is intensified, to convey the 
 ideas of future happiness. And as we believe 
 that we shall have bodies in heaven " like unto " 
 the Saviour's " glorious body," we are never 
 unwilling to think that there will be enjoyments 
 adapted to the body with the soul — spiritual, 
 of course, in both cases, and yet beautifully dis- 
 tinguished, but capable of blending, as in this 
 world. This way of representing unseen things 
 to us is not so much "Oriental" as the only 
 possible way, at present, of communicating spir- 
 itual objects to our understanding. 
 
 But while the attractions of heaven suffer 
 nothing by reason of criticisms upon the lan- 
 guage in which they are presented, some do not 
 use the same tolerance, nor apply the same prin- 
 ciples of interpretation, when they read or speak 
 of future punishment. Here, tliey say, all is 
 metaphorical. Oriental; they select certain im- 
 
16 SCBIPTURAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 ages, and ask if any suppose that the wicked 
 are, literally, to suffer such things, from just 
 these elements of pain. But the representations 
 • of heaven are certainly obnoxious to the very 
 same criticisms, and similar questions may be 
 asked concerning them. But being of a pleasur- 
 able nature, they escape criticism. Therefore, 
 if we are inquired of in either case. Do you 
 believe that these things are literally so ? the 
 proper answer seems to be in both cases, Either 
 these things, or things which now can only be 
 expressed by them. Those earthly symbols ap- 
 proach nearer than anything with which we are 
 now acquainted, to the things signified. 
 
 The condition of the wicked after death is 
 represented through such symbols by Christ and 
 his apostles as a state of positive punishment. 
 With a desire to speak cautiously on such a 
 point, and to follow only the most obvious lead- 
 ings of Scripture, very many are constrained to 
 believe • that while the finally impenitent will 
 experience the consequences naturally flowing 
 from their moral condition, those consequences 
 of their sins wiU be kept alive by the power of 
 God, and that continual sin will receive con- 
 
FUTUBE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 17 
 
 tinually new punishment. In the sermon on the 
 reasonableness of endless punishment (see the 
 preface), I assumed, for the sake of the argu- 
 ment, that future misery should consist only in 
 the natural consequences of evil, and then ar- 
 gued that it was reasonable that these should be 
 endless. I also deprecated any inquiry beyond 
 the plain language of the New Testament as to 
 the elements of punishment. The subject for- 
 bade any extended consideration of the nature of 
 future punishment, nor did I undertake to state 
 my own belief on that point. In attempting now 
 to show that the Scriptures represent the future 
 condition of the wicked to be a state of punish- 
 ment, it will be submitted to the reader whether 
 infliction from the hand of God be not neces- 
 sarily involved from the language of the Bible. 
 
 One of those indirect proofs of a thing which 
 sometimes are more forcible and convincing than 
 direct statements, occurs in the words of Christ, 
 which I will refer to as proving the future 
 punishment of the wicked, in which he tells us 
 to ^''fear Him tvhich is able to destroy loth soul 
 and body in helV^^ 
 
 * Matt. X. 28. 
 2 
 
18 SCEIPTUKAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 If God has merely the natural ability to do 
 this, while his character makes it morally impos- 
 sible that he should ever do it, the illustration is 
 singularly at fault. It would never be proper to 
 tell a child, as a reason why it should fear its 
 father and mother, that they have power to 
 inflict a punishment which we know is morally 
 impossible. Their mere natural ability to inflict 
 it would not justify the exhortation, " Yea, I 
 say unto you, fear them." To associate the idea 
 of destroying both body and soul in hell with 
 our proper fear of God, our heavenly Father, if 
 he would do no such thing, would not be in 
 accordance with truth. 
 
 Some, to avoid this difficulty, say that the 
 passage means merely that God can destroy life. 
 But so can they who kill the body. There is 
 something more which God alone can do, and 
 which we need rather to fear. Others, knowing 
 that the original word for hell in this passage 
 cannot mean the grave^ propose to render the 
 warning thus : that God can cast those whom he 
 kills into the valley of Hinnom. But so could 
 assassins or judicial executioners. We still look 
 for that which God alone can do. Some say it 
 
FUTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 19 
 
 must be annihilation. But the valley of Hinnom 
 is notoriously symbolical of perpetuity — the fire 
 always burning, the worm ever breeding. Why, 
 moreover, should any place be specified in which 
 the annihilation, which is the same thing every- 
 where, should occur ? Or what appropriateness 
 is there in speaking of the soul as being annihi- 
 lated there ? Destroying both soul and body in 
 hell seems to be equivalent to that expression, 
 "everlasting destruction," — an apparent con- 
 tradiction of terms, but conveying the idea of 
 perpetual loss and misery. 
 
 We get no relief from these difficulties with 
 the passage if we turn to the milder form in 
 which the idea is expressed in Luke xii. 5 : 
 " Fear Him which after he hath killed hath 
 power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you. 
 Fear him ; " for Gehenna, understood literally as 
 the valley of Hinnom, presents to the mind the 
 most terrific image of positive miser3^ Nothing 
 can be more revolting or fearful. Let those who 
 are jealous at imputations cast upon the charac- 
 ter of God by the doctrine of endless punisli- 
 ment, explain how Jesus could even suggest the 
 idea of the Father casting his offspring into a 
 
20 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 place, the name of which was borrowed from the 
 most fearful object then known to his hearers. 
 Until this passage is shown to imply no punish- 
 ment from the hand of God, we must regard it 
 as an impregnable proof of future visitations of 
 misery upon the wicked. 
 
 Some who believe in future punishment seek 
 to mitigate the influence of the dread truth upon 
 their feelings by the theory that future punish- 
 ment will consist only in the natural effects of 
 sin. This relieves them of the necessity to think 
 that God will inflict anything directly upon the 
 wicked. 
 
 One thing seems incontrovertible, viz. : the 
 Bible does not teach us that sin is its own com- 
 plete punishment. It is true that without the 
 elements of misery in themselves, the Bible tells 
 us, sinners could not be made miserable ; nor 
 would outward inflictions constitute punishment, 
 unless there were something within for the fire 
 to kindle. But it admits of a question whether, 
 if the sinner should be left entirely to himself, 
 undisturbed by any external power, adding new 
 energy to sorrow, or opening new sources of it, 
 he could not in time adjust himself, as in this 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 21 
 
 world, to any circumstances. Even in this 
 world, trouble, or the infliction of pain and sor- 
 row, is necessary to rouse the conscience. To 
 some extent God punishes men in this world, for 
 this purpose. "Because they 'have no changes, 
 therefore they fear not God." " Moab hath 
 been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled 
 on his lees, and hath not been emptied from 
 vessel to vessel." The seventy-third Psalm de- 
 scribes the wicked who " are not in trouble 
 as other men ; neither are they plagued like 
 other men." Hence " their strength is firm." 
 But even tribulation is powerless in many cases, 
 and the sinner is either emboldened by temporary 
 respite, or provoked by the rod to further oppo- 
 sition. Pharaoh is an eminent example of this. 
 It is said of another, " And in the time of his 
 distress did he trespass yet more against the 
 Lord; this is that king Ahaz." Other passages 
 in accordance with these, to prove the positions 
 just laid down, might easily be cited. 
 
 So that, however terrible and bitter the con- 
 dition of the sinner might be at first, it is not 
 inconceivable that he should at last say, with 
 Satan in Paradise Lost, " Hail ! horrors, hail ! 
 
22 SCRIPTUEAL ARGUMENT FOE 
 
 and thou, profoundest hell!" if God would but 
 depart from hhii ! Sinking into a torpid, brutish 
 state, or rousing themselves into defiant forms 
 of hatred and blasphemy, occupying themselves 
 with plots and counterplots in their strife with 
 each other, the wicked in hell, like bad or aban- 
 doned people here, might make their condition 
 tolerable. They would, for example, feel the 
 need of subordination among themselves for 
 their own protection; selfishness would suggest 
 many alleviations of misery by mutual forbear- 
 ance ; and as the worst of men — pirates, gam- 
 blers, debauchees — have codes of honor, and 
 ambition its fawning flatteries, and pride smoth- 
 ers its resentment, and selfishness in all its 
 forms is compelled to put on the mask of sub- 
 mission and obeisance, so the wicked, if left to 
 themselves, even with their wickedness festering 
 and their crimes becoming gigantic, might man- 
 age, by self-control, to reduce things into a 
 S3^stem which to their wretched natures might, 
 in very many cases, be even tolerable. Sin 
 itself is no misery to a sinner; it must meet 
 with ill success, it must be compelled to feel a 
 superior power acting contrary to itself; then, 
 
I 
 
 FUTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 23 
 
 indeed, it is the occasion of misery. It is no 
 sorrow to wicked men here, for God to depart 
 from them ; it is rather their desire ; " therefore 
 they say unto God, Depart from us, for we de- 
 sire not the knowledge of thy ways." Saul 
 never would have uttered that bitter cry, " God 
 is departed from me, and is become my enemy," 
 if the Philistines had not pursued hard after 
 him. God and he had been for a long time far 
 apart ; but very little did Saul care for this, 
 until the day of his calamity made haste. 
 
 If, therefore, there is to be, in the strict sense 
 of the term, punishment after death, it would 
 seem that there must, in the nature of things, 
 be visitations upon the wicked of that which 
 the Bible calls '' indignation and wrath, tribula- 
 tion and anguish." While there must be in the 
 sinner himself a state of things which will make 
 these inflictions punishment, there must also be 
 a mighty hand stretched out forever to make the 
 future condition of the wicked, one of retribu- 
 tion. There is both error and truth in the com- 
 mon saying with many that future misery will 
 proceed from conscience ; — error, if it be sup- 
 posed that conscience left to itself will occasion 
 
24 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT ¥0R 
 
 torment ; for, if in this world, with so much to 
 stimulate conscience, it so easily falls asleep, the 
 provocations, and the necessity of self-defence, 
 and redress, and all the bad influences of hell, 
 must have the power totally to sear it; — but 
 there is truth in the saying, if it be allowed that 
 God is to visit the wicked in ways that will 
 excite conscience against them ; this would be 
 " infliction," compared with which fire and brim- 
 stone, though the most appalling images of tor- 
 ture we can easily conceive, do not convey more 
 terrible ideas of retribution. 
 
 Now, the Bible is continually representing the 
 wicked as receiving from God positive inflic- 
 tions, and not merely as being abandoned to 
 themselves. Even when it speaks of many 
 sources of misery which might seem to be the 
 natural consequences of their sin, it often repre- 
 sents these consequences as being administered 
 by the direct agency of the Almighty. So that 
 the two things seem to be combined. '' Upon the 
 wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, 
 and a horrible tempest ; this shall be the por- 
 tion of their cup." " Now consider this, ye that 
 forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 25 
 
 none to deliver." " God is angry with the wicked 
 every day. If he turn not, he will whet his 
 sword ; he hath bent his bow and made it 
 ready." These passages teach that sinners will 
 not merely be left to the natural consequences 
 of sin. The ideas of arrest, and of execution, 
 are here presented ; the transgressor is not left 
 to himself, with merely his sin for his punish- 
 ment. Then, again, we read : " Woe unto the 
 wicked ; it shall be ill with him ; for the reward 
 of his hands shall be given him," " Yea, woe 
 unto them also when I depart from them." 
 Even though the wicked should not suffer oth- 
 erwise, nor to a greater degree, than they are 
 capable of suffering in their minds here, yet, if 
 they are to be punished, these sufferings must be 
 kept active by an outward power; for their nat- 
 ural tendency is to harden and stupefy, or to 
 excite passions whose gratification affords a cer- 
 tain redress. 
 
 All this we may believe without venturing 
 one step into the dominion of fancy to depict 
 the kind and manner of those inflictions which 
 are necessary to constitute punishment. Nor is 
 it necessary ; for knowing as we do by experi- 
 
26 SCEIPTUEAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 ence and observation what the passions of the 
 human heart are when restraint is weakened or 
 removed, we need no external images of woe to 
 represent what it must be for God to minister 
 excitement to them by his presence and his 
 intercourse with them. In a sense he departs 
 from them, as he did from Saul. By this is sig- 
 nified the withdrawal of everything merciful, 
 alleviating, hopeful, and of a restraining reform- 
 atory nature. Yet he will always make his 
 presence to be felt ; for " if I make my bed in 
 hell, behold thou art there." While, therefore, 
 material images of woe, if too specific, seem to 
 degrade, the subject, and are apt to pass over, in 
 their effect on some, from the extreme of horror 
 to the grotesque, they are not objectionable on 
 the score of over-statement; nothing which fancy 
 ever depicted being capable of expressing the 
 misery which must be felt by a depraved soul 
 opposed to God and with God for its punisher. 
 We have only to think of what is sometimes 
 felt at funerals and closing graves, to see what 
 future misery must be in one of its merely 
 incidental forms — the loss of all good forever. 
 If God shall but keep perpetually fresh such 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 27 
 
 sorrows as men feel here, he will fulfil a large 
 part of that which the Saviour and the apostles 
 have declared to be the future portion of the 
 wicked. So that when good men like Leighton, 
 Baxter, Andrew Fuller, the Wesleys, Watts, and 
 Edwards, portray, according to their several con- 
 ceptions, the pains of the wicked, they fall far 
 below the truth ; and their representations, if at 
 all objectionable, are not so for the reason that 
 they surpass the dread reality ; for that is impos- 
 sible. Let us now consider the following pas- 
 sages : — 
 
 " As therefore the tares are gathered and are 
 burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of 
 the world. The Son of man shall send forth his 
 angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom 
 all things that offend and them which do ini- 
 quity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire ; 
 there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." 
 These same closing words are used a few verses 
 afterwards, in explaining the parable of the net. 
 Not to burden the attention of the reader, there 
 is one passage more which I will quote in con- 
 nection with the preceding, for the sake of briefly 
 remarking upon them, before passing to the next 
 topic. 
 
28 SCEIPTUEAL AEGUMENT FOR 
 
 The passage to which I refer is: "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 mix- 
 ture 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 pres- 
 ence of the Lamb : and the smoke of their tor- 
 ment ascendeth up forever and ever : and they 
 have no rest, day nor night, who \7orship the 
 beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth 
 the mark of his name." * 
 
 If the Bible says that angels, at the last day, 
 inflict on the wicked that which can best be 
 compared only to casting them into a furnace of 
 fire, I will implicitly believe it. My reason, as- 
 certains whether this is said, beyond reasonable 
 doubt; then reason bows to revelation. I will 
 not object that such employment does not con- 
 sist with my conceptions of angelic natures. If 
 I did, the question would be appropriate. Do you 
 consent that a holy angel should have cut off the 
 hundred and eighty^five thousand Assyrians of 
 * Rev. xiv. 9-11. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 29 
 
 Sennacherib's army in one night, and that an- 
 other should have directed the pestilence of three 
 days in Israel? What will you do about these 
 things ? You are disposed, perhaps, to associate 
 angels with "birds and flowers," with elves and 
 fairies, and not with garments rolled in blood, or 
 hands reeking with slaughter. My reply is, I 
 will correct my natural or acquired feelings by 
 the word of God. But the word of God says 
 that angels will cast " all things that offend, and 
 them which do iniquity, into a furnace of fire." 
 Inanimate things are not meant ; for it is added, 
 " there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." 
 Moreover, the word of God says that the idola- 
 trous worshippers of the beast shall be tormented 
 with fire and brimstone in the presence of the 
 holy angels and of the Lamb. 
 
 My only question will be again, Does the Bible 
 mean by this that men will be made to suffer in 
 a way which is most appropriately expressed by 
 fire and brimstone ; that even if it be not literally 
 so, there would really be nothing to choose be- 
 tween the two things, the figure and the literal 
 meaning ? And does it say that holy angels, and 
 the Lamb of God himself, will look on, approve, 
 
30 SCRIPTUBAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 and confirm the infliction? If so, I fully and 
 firmly believe it ; be it figurative or literal, I be- 
 lieve it, and I will take it to be the same as lit- 
 eral. And I will postpone the explanation to 
 my natural feelings, till I know more. I find 
 that when men fully understand the enormities 
 of some outrage upon a fellow-creature, and the 
 soul is filled with them, the punishment, swift or 
 slow, meets with no repugnance in their nature. 
 Perhaps when I know more about sin and unbe- 
 lief, it will be so with regard to future punish- 
 ment. Only let me be persuaded that the lan- 
 guage of the Bible, properly interpreted, declares 
 anything ; then there is no appeal. 
 
 But I now respectfully ask the attention of 
 the reader, when I say, that if I did not believe 
 in there being a state of future punishment 
 which justifies such language, I fear that I could 
 not stop short of the boldest infidelity. I might 
 even assail the Bible as unfit to be read. It is 
 no relief to tell me that the language does not 
 mean all which it would seem to convey. I 
 should reply, This is bad language, unless there 
 be something which language of this sort only 
 can express. But if it be an exaggeration of a 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 31 
 
 truth, or if, for the sake of impression, an idea is 
 conveyed which is false, a man may as well apol- 
 ogize to me for a profane blasphemer, saying that 
 his oaths do not really mean all which the}^' ex- 
 press, as try to reconcile me to the belief that 
 such words as these are inspired. It is not the 
 truth which offends me, but the untruthfulness of 
 the language. The words are not decorous ; my 
 moral sense is abused, when I read such expres- 
 sions, unless substantial truth requires them. The 
 sin is not against my faith, but against my under- 
 standing. If there be nothing in holy angels, 
 and in the Saviour, which corresponds to these 
 representations, I should be tempted to go at 
 once from the Bible to the teaching and preach- 
 ing of some man who rejects the Bible, and re- 
 jects it partly because it uses such language. 
 But where should I find such a preacher, who 
 would not trouble me with the inconsistency of 
 taking his text every Sabbath from the very book 
 from which I seek to flee? So true is it that 
 the stoutest unbeliever cannot shake off the hold 
 which the Bible has upon his moral nature. Ab- 
 solute scepticism seems to be as impossible as 
 universal knowledge. 
 
32 SCBIPTUBAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 " Cast them into a furnace of fire," " in the 
 presence of the holy angels," " and of the Lamb." 
 Some tell me that this is " Oriental ; " some, that 
 it is merely " flame-picture ;'" some, that it is 
 "mere hj'-perbole." Now, if a mere show of dis- 
 pleasure is signified by this language, the objec- 
 tion is, not to the punishment, but, that such 
 inappropriate, such defamatory representations 
 should be used in connection with the holy an- 
 gels and the Lamb of God. If you will insist 
 that the words are true, I have no objection to 
 make. But the Bible does not observe the ordi- 
 nary laws of decorum in language, unless truth 
 would be violated by the use of other and milder 
 terms than these, in describing the future inflic- 
 tion of punishment upon the wicked. 
 
 The following scriptures, teaching that the 
 wicked are in misery after death, confirm the 
 foregoing statements: "The wicked is driven 
 away in his wickedness." "The ungodly are 
 like the chaff which the wind driveth away." 
 " The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners 
 before God exceedingly." " And the Lord rained 
 fire and brimstone out of heaven, and destroyed 
 them all." " The rich man died, and was buried ; 
 
FUTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 33 
 
 and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in tor- 
 ment." "- Judas by transgression fell, and went 
 to his own place." " If ye believe not that I 
 am he, ye shall die in j^our sins." '' And where 
 I am, thither 3^e cannot come." 
 
 He who will say that such men as are here 
 described meet in death with a change of char- 
 acter which prepares them at once for happiness, 
 may as well assert, once for all, that delusion is 
 practised upon us by the representations of the 
 Bible ; that the object is merely to frighten the 
 living ; that apparent judgments upon the 
 wicked, death and its terrors, are merely a dumb 
 show, a tragic demonstration, a dissolving view 
 turning, within the veil, into manifestations of 
 compassion and love. There have not been 
 wanting men, who, in their concern for the 
 character of God, have interpreted his words of 
 vengeance, and his terrible acts towards the 
 wdcked, in this manner — as though such de- 
 ception w^ere any relief from imputations of 
 undue severity. Archbishop Tillotson ventured 
 such an explanation, and President Edwards's 
 ironical reproof of him and others, for betraying 
 their Maker's secret, is well known. There are 
 3 
 
34 SCEIPTUEAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 some even now who, like the sect of Manichees, 
 seem to hold that all evil resides in matter, and 
 therefore that in the separation of the soul 
 from the body the soul becomes pure. But the 
 question before us is. What do the Scriptures 
 teach? If there be anything conclusive in 
 positive statements, this is placed beyond all 
 reasonable dispute — that some men die in their 
 sins, and that after death they have in them- 
 selves the elements of miser}^ The rich man 
 surely is an instance of this. Judas's '' own 
 place " was not heaven. 
 
 Wq have seen thus far that, while the Scrip- 
 tures represent the wicked themselves to be an 
 essential source of their own misery, future pun- 
 ishment necessarily implies infliction, or excita- 
 tion, from a source beyond the sinner himself. 
 Some opprobriously call this "the doctrine of 
 endless torture." But there is something more 
 terrible here than ''torture." If the sinner 
 were made to feel constantly that he is in the 
 hands of a torturer, many a passion of his nature 
 might minister strength to his resistance, and 
 impart fortitude. But to have his, own self ex- 
 cited against him forever, so as to seem the prox- 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 35 
 
 imate cause of his misery, is the more helpless 
 woe. But however the sources of it may be 
 combined, we have seen that the wicked are in 
 misery Bfter death. The question now is, Will 
 their misery remain forever ? Do the Scriptures 
 teach that the punishment of the wicked, made 
 up as it necessarily is from the natural conse- 
 quences of evil-doing and positive inflictions from 
 the hand of God, will be without end? The 
 affirmative of this question I have undertaken 
 to prove. 
 
 But it may be said. You undertake an impos- 
 sible task, because you know nothing of futurity. 
 Principles may yet be evolved which now are 
 slumbering in the bosom of God. You must 
 journey farther than man has gone before you 
 can decide this subject. "- Have the gates of 
 death been opened to thee ? or hast thou seen 
 the doors of the shadow of death? " 
 
 The^only question to be considered is. What do 
 the Scriptures now teach as to the future condi- 
 tion of the wicked ? Do they, or do they not, 
 represent it as unalterable ? If we can ascer- 
 tain this we need not perplex ourselves as to 
 ulterior revelations ; nor should we refuse to 
 
ob SCBIPTUBAL xlBGUMENT FOR 
 
 receive the present testimony of God, with the 
 objection that something more may possibly be 
 said hereafter. What, then, does the Bible 
 teach us as to the state and prospects of the im- 
 penitent after death ? 
 
 Let the reader now endeavor to lay out of the 
 question all considerations relating to the rea- 
 sonableness or justice of future, endless punish- 
 ment. Let him not foreclose the discussion in 
 his own mind by saying that it is unreasonable 
 and unjust, and therefore that it cannot be in the 
 Bible. Rather let him first ascertain whether it 
 be taught there, and then, if he will, let him de- 
 bate with himself whether finding it there, he 
 will, or will not, receive the Bible itself. 
 
 In considering whether the Scriptures teach 
 that the punishment of the wicked will be with- 
 out end, we will see if the following proposi- 
 tion can be maintained. 
 
FLTTUKE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 37 
 
 II. 
 
 Redemption by Christ is represented as having 
 for its object salvation from final perdition. 
 
 IF upon the failure of all which is done in re- 
 demption to save men, they are to be sub- 
 jected to another probation after death, there are 
 powerful reasons to think that the surest way 
 to effect their recovery is, to let them know be- 
 forehand that God will give them a second trial. 
 For this is manifestly the way in which God 
 proceeded with the Hebrew people, whose refor- 
 mation in this *world, and whose allegiance, he 
 was seeking to secure. In foresight of their 
 apostasy and punishment, they were told before- 
 hand that they should have a second probation. 
 The following words are an explicit declaration 
 to this effect, and are an instance of divine wis- 
 dom which man would never have devised, from 
 fear of consequences. After telling Israel of 
 the happy fruit which would attend their obedi- 
 ence, and the direful effects of their apostasy, 
 
38 SCRIPTUEAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 instead of leaving them in doubt whether thej^ 
 will have a second probation, God expressly tells 
 them that they shall be again restored. " When 
 thou art in tribulation and all these things are 
 come upon^.thee, even in the latter days, if thou 
 turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient 
 unto his voice, (for the Lord thy God is a mer- 
 ciful God,) he will not forsake thee, neither 
 destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy 
 fathers which he sware unto thee." * 
 
 It might have been argued with much plausi- 
 bleness that such an announcement would be 
 inexpedient ; that it would have a direct effect 
 to make men careless and presumptuous. But 
 infinite wisdom judged otherwise, and proceeded 
 at different times to say : " If his diildren forsake 
 my law, then will I visit their transgressions 
 with the rod ; — nevertheless my loving-kind- 
 ness will I not utterly take from him." And 
 again : " If my covenant be not with day and 
 night, then will I cast off the seed of Jacob ; — 
 for I will cause their captivity to return, and 
 have mercy upon them." Again: "I will for 
 this af&ict the seed of David, but not forever." 
 
 * Deut. iv. 30. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 89 
 
 What principle in moral natures is there which 
 makes this announcement, to sinners, of future 
 clemency and restoration, wise and expedient? 
 The obvious answer is, Hope. Whether or not 
 there can ever be repentance w^ithout hope, it is 
 certain that hope is a powerful means of repent- 
 ance. " How many hired servants of my father 
 have bread enough and to spare, and I perish 
 with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, 
 and say unto him. Father, I have sinned." — 
 The promise of a future trial, the explicit avowal 
 of relenting in his displeasure, with a view 
 to the final recovery of the transgressors, was 
 deemed by the Most High to be essential in the 
 exercise of his administration in ancient times. 
 The admixture of hope in his threatenings, the 
 line of light in the horizon below the coming 
 tempest, was regarded by Jehovah as a necessary 
 means of efi^ecting the ultimate restoration of 
 the Jews, so that, to this day, provision is made 
 for hope to fasten its hand upon exceeding great 
 and precious promises, the moment that the 
 thought arises of turning to God. He would 
 have the sinners think, in their deep distress 
 under the chastising rod, that he would be 
 
40 SCEIPTTJKAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 found of them, if they returned and sought him, 
 and that he made provision for hope even while 
 the terrible blow was about to descend. 
 
 In offering pardon and salvation to men 
 through the sufferings and death of Christ, and 
 in setting forth the consequences of neglecting 
 so great salvation, if God does not intimate that, 
 nevertheless, the wicked shall not be utterly cast 
 off, surely it is not because it would be incon- 
 sistent with the principles of moral government 
 thus to mingle hope with chastisement. We 
 have seen that intimations of future mercy were 
 made to men who were abusing the most signal 
 acts of divine favor ; and that to secure their 
 future repentance, God judged it wise and pru- 
 dent to prevent the ill effect which wrath and 
 punishment might have upon them, by so order- 
 ing it that they should recollect amidst their 
 punishment that even long before the moment 
 of descending wrath, he remembered mercy, and 
 that, accordingly, when about to cast them off, 
 he said, " How shall I give thee up ? — my heart 
 is turned within me, my repentings are kindled 
 together." And the anointed prophet said in 
 his name, " He will return, he will have mercy 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 41 
 
 upon us ; and thou wilt cast their iniquities into 
 the depths of the sea." All this, it will be re- 
 membered, was not a sudden relenting; it was 
 part of a plan announced so long beforehand as 
 to give evidence of special design. 
 
 We, therefore, say, that if no such foretokens 
 of far distant mercy and forgiveness are now 
 made to those who reject Christ, it cannot prop- 
 erly be argued that it would be unsuitable, and 
 that wisdom and prudence forbid. On the con- 
 trary, such promises would be in accordance with 
 those former dealings of God with men in which 
 he has manifested the most peculiar love for 
 transgressors. It would be analogous to his for- 
 mer conduct should he intimate, in immediate 
 connection with his threatenings, that if we neg- 
 lect our present opportunity and means of salva- 
 tion, and subject ourselves necessarily to a long 
 and fearful discipline of sorrow, nevertheless the 
 time will come when he will return and be paci- 
 fied towards us for all which we have done. If 
 no such intimations are given, we have strong 
 presumptive evidence that it is because the con- 
 dition of the wicked at death is final. 
 
 For, as we read the threatenings against Edom, 
 
42 SCEIPTURAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 and Babylon, and Egypt, and Tyre, we find no 
 words of promise mingled with the predictions 
 of their doom. Probation for them is past; 
 hence, when God is declaring his vengeance 
 against them, not one word is uttered which, in 
 the hour of their downfall, would come to their 
 memories as a ray of hope. The utter ruin and 
 desolation of those kingdoms show the reason 
 for withholding every promise of future mercy ; 
 it was intended that their destruction should be 
 final. 
 
 But it may be said, Ts God under any obliga- 
 tion to disclose all his future purposes with re- 
 gard to the wicked ? Surety not ; but certainly 
 he will not deceive us ; he is not obliged to tell 
 us anything ; but if he tells us a part, he will 
 not make false impressions. 
 
 But some will say, It may now be wise in God 
 to vary his plan, and suffer the wicked 4:0 " de- 
 part " with the full expectation that their doom 
 is forever ; and then he may interpose and save 
 them. Who will deny that this is possible ? 
 
 It is evidently the object of the gospel to save 
 men here from their sins, and to rescue them 
 from future misery, limited or endless. Is it 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 43 
 
 honest, or would it not be like '' false pretences," 
 to make the impression that there is to be no 
 further probation after death, if the idea is ut- 
 terly inconsistent with the character of God? 
 We know what is thought of one who offers his 
 wares as positively the last, and then produces 
 more. The question is simply this : Would God 
 seek to save men by making them think that 
 this is their only chance of pardon, when he 
 knows that it is not to be the last? But if God 
 intended that we should believe this to be the 
 last, who among the sons of the mighty is en- 
 titled to the merit of having undeceived us ? It 
 is impiety to assert that there is a future proba- 
 tion, against the plain declarations of the Bible, 
 if such declarations are made. 
 
 Now let us examine the inspired record. At 
 the very close of the Bible we read : "He that is 
 unjust let him be unjust still, and he that is filthy 
 let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous let 
 him be righteous still, and he that is holy let him 
 be holy stilL" As the " unjust '' and "filthy" 
 never could be directed to refrain, in this world, 
 from efforts to become good, (unless their day of 
 grace were past,) these words are obviously a 
 
44 SCRIPTUEAL ABGUIVIENT FOR 
 
 declaration that character is unchangeable after 
 death. In faithful consistency even to the last 
 with the great distinguishing feature of the 
 Christian religion, viz., regard for the individual, 
 the closing words of the Bible have reference to 
 each accountable member of the human family : 
 "And behold I come quickly, and my reward is 
 with me, to give to every man according as his 
 work shall be." Here is the place where we 
 should look for intimations, if any could be made, 
 of future probation. Here is the promontory 
 which runs down to the unfathomable main, 
 looks'forth on " that ocean we must sail so soon ; " 
 and as it terminates all earthly efforts after salva- 
 tion, does it give us one hint about some future 
 method of recovery ? Are there signals pre- 
 pared on this cape and headland, indicating to 
 the eye of despair, afar off, that the cross of 
 Christ holds out proposals of reconciliation still, 
 to those who trampled it under foot, on their 
 way to eternity ? On the contrary, evelything 
 makes the impression on the vast majority of 
 readers ever since these words were written, that 
 the results of life are to be final. No hopeful 
 class of probationers are represented as '^ with- 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 45 
 
 out," when the righteous have entered through 
 the gates into the city. All the sublime images 
 in the last chapters of this book come thronging 
 down to that shore where inspiration lays aside 
 its pen and looks towards the shoreless waste be- 
 yond time. It has been said that the Old Testa- 
 ment ends with a curse. This is a mistake. It 
 ends with a promise of turning the hearts of 
 fathers and children, to avert a curse. But no 
 prediction of any turning of hearts in eternity 
 occurs at the close of that book which gives us 
 the last information respecting the future. Its 
 silence is as impressive as its few decisive words. 
 We can imagine how Christ would have draw^n 
 the picture of retribution had he followed the 
 Old Testament, in doing so, in its hopeful and 
 prophetic intermingling of light with the dark- 
 ness. Making the prospect terrific, at first, be- 
 yond all human power of description, to enforce 
 the duty of immediate repentance, and to deter 
 from sin, then appealing to our sense of propri- 
 ety, our magnanimity, our shame, he would have 
 told us how in the future, more or less remote, 
 God would visit his erring and perverse children 
 with his remonstrances ; how he himself would 
 
46 SCBIPTUBAL AEGUMENT FOR 
 
 weep over them and repeat the offers of pardon ; 
 and in view of all this we can imagine how he 
 would expostulate. Such a procedure would 
 accord with the principles of human nature and 
 of the divine government, as illustrated in the 
 history of Israel. Is the Saviour less compas- 
 sionate and ready to forgive than the God of the 
 Old Testament ? — for we see God listening to 
 catch the first sigh of repentance ; and when he 
 hears it, he proclaims: "I have surely heard 
 Ephraim bemoaning himself thus : Thou hast 
 chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock 
 unaccustomed to the 3^oke ; turn thou me and I 
 shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God." 
 Not one word like this do we hear from the lips 
 of him who was the brightness of the Father's 
 glory and the express image of his person. 
 "Where is prophecy, with her glowing tongue, 
 foretelling, at the hour of captivity, the sinner's 
 final return ? The opening of hell, and the final 
 release of Satan and his angels, and of wicked 
 men, would have been an anticipation sublime 
 beyond most other visions ; and, if allowable, it 
 could not have failed to excite the imagination 
 of seers and prophets. But where are the 
 
FIJTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 47 
 
 Isaiahs, stretching their vision beyond time and 
 the captivity of hell, saying. Comfort ye, comfort 
 ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye com- 
 fortably to the cursed, and say unto them that 
 their warfare is accomplished, that their iniquity 
 is pardoned ; for they have received of the Lord's 
 hand double for all their sins. Can it be that 
 not even from you, beloved John, is there a vis- 
 ion or a word of hope for sinners after death ? 
 You saw the dead, small and great, stand before 
 God, the books opened, and another book, which 
 is the book of life. You saw the judgment, and 
 the doom ; the lake of fire was first prepared by 
 casting death and hell into it, and when all was 
 ready, whosoever was not found written in the 
 book of life, you saw him cast into the lake of 
 fire. No syllable of mercy? No visit from the 
 angel that talked with thee, saying, Come up 
 hither, to see, from a higher point, beyond that 
 lake ? Have you no yearning look ? — not even 
 one slightly musical dark saying upon the harp, 
 to keep us from suspecting that God can ever be 
 implacable? In the Old Testament he relents 
 and repents. " His soul was grieved for the 
 ^misery of Israel." " How shall X^ -iftftfesthee as 
 
 fTJ!ri7BR3IT7l 
 
48 SCEIPTURAL ABGUMENT FOB 
 
 Admah ! How sh<all I set thee as Zeboim ! My 
 heart is turned within me, my repentings are 
 kindled together." Is that Old Testament, which 
 is represented by scoffers as "cruel," "sangui- 
 nary," " vindictive," actually more merciful in 
 its expressions towards rebellious Israel than the 
 New Testament is towards men who died in 
 their sins? 
 
 How strange that He, who wept over Jerusa- 
 lem, could say, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
 everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
 angels," and let fall no expressions of commis- 
 eration or word of hope, nor leave some elliptical 
 "notwithstanding," — an unfinished sentence, a 
 place with asterisks, a chance even for a guess 
 that all would not be forever determined for the 
 wicked, at the last day ! 
 
 Mark the altered language, the different tone 
 and manner of the Saviour towards the wicked 
 in the other world, compared with his words and 
 behavior towards our sinful race when he was on 
 earth. " The master of the house has risen up, 
 and shut to the door." They knock ; he says, 
 " I tell j^ou I know you not, whence ye are. De- 
 part from me." The direction is, "Bind him, 
 
FUTUBE, ENDLESS PUNISHMEJ^T. 49 
 
 hand and foot." They '' cut him asunder, and 
 appoint him his portion," not with candidates for 
 heaven, under discipline, but "with the hypo- 
 crites." He is '' thrust out." Christ uses the 
 expressions, " lose his soul ; " "be cast away ; " 
 "salted with fire;" "grind him to powder;" 
 "son of perditi?^ ; " "slay them beforeme;" 
 " seek me and not find me ; " " gather the good, 
 and cast the bad away;" "great gulf fixed;" 
 "die in your sins;" "where I am ye cannot 
 come." In various parts of the Bible we meet 
 with phrases of the like tenor, — such as " Avrath 
 to come ; " " shame and everlasting contempt ; " 
 " torment us before the time ; " " reap corrup- 
 tion ; " " wages of sin is death ; " " more tolera- 
 ble for Sodom in the day of judgment; " "mist 
 of darkness forever and ever." Indeed, these 
 incidental expressions, interwoven everywhere 
 throughout the Bible, assume that the doctrine 
 of future, endless punishment for sin is a matter 
 of course. The common mode of referring to 
 the future implies it. " Because there is wrath, 
 beware lest he take thee away with his stroke ; " 
 "then a great ransom will not deliver thee." "I 
 will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when 
 
50 SCEIPTURAL AEGUMENT FOR 
 
 your fear cometh." The numerous passages of 
 this tenor do not suggest any idea of future 
 clemency. 
 
 Paul thus declares the end of the wicked : 
 " The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, 
 with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking 
 vengeance on them that knew not God, and obey 
 not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who 
 shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
 from the presence of the Lord, and from the 
 glory of his power, when he shall come to be 
 glorified in his saints, and admired in all them 
 that believe, for our testimony among you was 
 believed in that day." That this does not apply 
 to the destruction of Jerusalem, as the Papists 
 and some Protestants would have us think, ap- 
 pears from the next chapter, in which the Thes- 
 salonians are told that " that day " is not " at 
 hand," because the "man of sin" was first to be 
 revealed. 
 
 Then Peter follows him, and says, " But the 
 heavens and the earth which are now, by the 
 same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire 
 against the day of judgment and perdition of 
 ungodly men." 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 51 
 
 Thus, while the Bible satisfies us that the re- 
 demption made by Christ is a final effort to save 
 men, we do not wonder that those who reject the 
 Godhead of Christ and his sacrifice for sin, reject 
 also the idea of endless punishment. There is 
 no adequate necessity for a divine Saviour with 
 his vicarious sacrifice, if there be no such pen- 
 alty annexed to the law of God. Every man is 
 then his own redeemer, either by obedience or 
 by suffering. 
 
 But the evangelical believer looks into the 
 . manger and upon the cross, and sees there his 
 God incarnate. He sees, in that Christ, a sacri- 
 fice for his sins. The world laugh him to scorn. 
 They demand whether he believes that his God 
 is dying ; and every form of intellectual ridicule 
 is poured upon him. He steadfastly maintains 
 that " the Word was God," that " the Word was 
 made flesh," that this incarnate Word was on 
 the cross, " a ransom for many," " a propitiation 
 through faith in his blood," his sufferings a sub- 
 stitute for the sinner's punishment. The be- 
 liever looks to find some necessity for such an 
 incarnation, and for the sacrificial death of such 
 a being. He cannot find it in the need of 
 
52 SCRIPTUEAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 example, moral suasion, or representation of the 
 divine interest in him ; but, in the declaration 
 that Christ was once offered to bear the sins of 
 many, he sees the appropriateness of the incar- 
 nation to give a divine worth and efficacy to suf- 
 ferings which are to atone for sin. There is no 
 revelation to be compared with this: " God was 
 manifest in the flesh," and, he "was manifested 
 to take away our sins." By all the methods of 
 imagery, symbolism, predictions, and most mi- 
 nute, pathetic delineations of his coming, his 
 life, death, and resurrection ; by appeals from his 
 own lijps, and those of men " in Christ's stead ; " 
 by that perpetual memorial of him, and of his 
 sacrifice, the Lord's supper, men are admonished, 
 and, " as though God did beseech them," urged 
 to accept pardon through this infinite provision 
 made for the forgiveness of sin. This produces 
 the effect, generally, upon the mind, of a last 
 effort. 
 
 It might have been supposed that the work of 
 Christ would suffice for the present dispensation, 
 and that men rejecting or neglecting it would, in 
 a future state, be approached by those influences 
 which belong peculiarly to the work of the third 
 
FUTURE, EOT)LESS PUNISHMENT. 53 
 
 person in the Godhead. But Christ said, ''It is 
 expedient for you that I go away ; for, if I go 
 not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; 
 but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And 
 when he is come, he will reprove the world of 
 sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." Some- 
 thing more than ordinary divine influence is 
 meant here by the Comforter ; for the Saviour's 
 being in the world would not of course keep 
 divine influence out of it, or prevent the disciples 
 from receiving comfort in God. A special, divine 
 agency is here recognized, and, by all the laws 
 of language, a special, divine, personal agent. 
 His object is to reprove the world of sin, of right- 
 eousness, and of judgment. All which is implied 
 in the idea of moral omnipotence is thus made to 
 bear upon the hearts and minds of men, to effect 
 their reconciliation to God, through Christ. 
 
 Resistance to these efforts in a certain way, it 
 is declared, shall have the effect, however long a 
 time before death it may be made, to consign the 
 sinner to hopeless condemnation ; for '^ whoso- 
 ever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall 
 not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nei- 
 ther in the world to come." 
 
54 SORIPTUEAL ARGUMENT FOE. 
 
 It does not seem easy to explain how any one 
 who ''hath never forgiveness," " neither in this 
 world, neither in the world to come," is to be 
 saved ; nor by what moral distinctions it can 
 be made to appear that some who commit one 
 particular sin are justly condemned to a hope- 
 less, unforgiven state, and that all the rest of 
 mankind are to be restored. The work of the 
 Holy Spirit, and the unpardonable sin against 
 him, convince us that the effort of mercy to save 
 men ends with life. Such words as these from 
 Christ, "hath never forgiveness, but is in danger 
 of eternal damnation," admit of no appeal. 
 
 In this connection let it be observed that evan- 
 gelical Christians regard the work of the Holy 
 Spirit as of equal importance with the death of 
 Christ, and as essential a part of the work 
 of redemption. It is from sin that we are to 
 be redeemed ; it is to holiness that we are 
 to be restored ; hell and heaven are a consum- 
 mation, respectively, of sin and holiness. But 
 we notice that those who reject 'the idea of 
 future punishment dwell much on sin and holi- 
 ness as being the sole objects of redemption, 
 irrespective of the future state to which they 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 55 
 
 lead. Olshausen says : '' The Scriptures know 
 no such pretended divestment of all egoism, 
 that man needs as motives neither fear nor hope, 
 whether of damnation or eternal happiness ; — 
 and rightly ; for it (z. e, this notion) exhibits 
 itself either as fanatical error, as in Madame 
 Guyon, or, which is doubtless most common, 
 as indifference and torpidity.""^ However some 
 may regard it as a narrow and selfish thing to 
 make so much, as evangelical Christians do, of 
 " salvation " and " safety," we find that the 
 New Testament sets us the example. Its chief 
 burden is holiness, likeness to God ; but it ap- 
 peals to our love of happiness and dread of 
 pain; sentimental philosophy would substitute 
 for these instincts a perception of the " good, the 
 beautiful, and the true;" the gospel insists on 
 these, but the way to reach them is through the 
 natural constitution which God has given us. 
 Inspiration does not disdain to say, " God so 
 loved the world that he gave his only-begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
 perish but have everlasting life." "He that be- 
 lieveth shall be saved, and he that believeth not 
 
 * Commentary, v. 302. 
 
56 . SCRIPTUBAL AKGUMENT FOR 
 
 shall be damned." " We shall be saved from 
 wrath through him." " Who have fled for re- 
 fuge to lay hold on the hope s&t before us." 
 " What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the 
 whole world, and lose his own soul; or what 
 shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? " 
 The attempt to show that all this is unworthy 
 of our " noble aspirations," is only professing to 
 be wise ; but " the foolishness of God is wiser 
 than men." The work of the Holy Spirit in 
 applying the redemption by Christ to the souls 
 of men has for its object not only to save 
 them from sin, but from its '' wages," which is 
 ^' death." 
 
 All having failed, and men going from under 
 the concentrated influences of redeeming mercy 
 into a future state, if then the God who has pro- 
 vided such a plan of redemption, is to meet them, 
 and, rather than have them perish ^ abandon all 
 his terms, and admit them to heaven upon their 
 own conditions, rather than see them suffer ; if 
 he who became flesh and died for them, will 
 then consent that punishment shall try to effect 
 that which love and earthly discipline, together, 
 failed to accomplish, and punishment proves to 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 57 
 
 be the power of God and the wisdom of God 
 unto salvation, and sinners will therefore have 
 more powerful means of grace in hell than under 
 the gospel, we, for our part, need another reve- 
 lation to inform us of it, and then to explain its 
 consistency with our present Bible. 
 
58 SOJRIPTUEAL AKGUMENT FOR 
 
 III. 
 
 The fall of angels, and of man, is a con- 
 firmatory proof of future, endless retri- 
 bution. 
 
 THIS will of course have weight only with 
 those who believe in the existence and fall 
 of angels, and in the fall of man. To prove 
 either of these here, would be out of place ; and, 
 indeed, the necessity of proving them would 
 show that everything which has thus far been 
 said in this article is superfluous, because it 
 takes for granted many things generally be- 
 lieved, which rest, however, on the same kind 
 of evidence with the existence of angels and 
 their fall. The apostles, the scribes and Phari- 
 sees, I have not thought it necessary to prove 
 had a real existence, and that they were not 
 merely personified principles of good and evil. 
 If the reader be one who rejects the doctrine of 
 fallen angels, and of the fall of man, he will 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 69 
 
 read what is here said merely as shov/ing the 
 way in which those who believe these things are 
 confirmed, by them, in their belief of endless 
 retribution. Peter says, " God spared not the 
 angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, 
 and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be 
 reserved unto judgment."* Jude says, ''And 
 the angels which kept not their first estate, but 
 left their own habitation, he hath reserved in 
 everlasting chains under darkness unto the judg- 
 ment of the great day." f 
 
 If God did not keep angels from falling, we 
 are not constrained to think that he will restore 
 them, If he will hereafter reinstate them by a 
 direct act of power, the same power could have 
 kept them from falling, with no greater inter- 
 ference with their free agency. If he allowed 
 them to fall with a view to some great good in , 
 their natures, suffering them, in the progress of 
 their experience, to ruin this world, and bring in 
 such a fearful plague as sin has been to our race, 
 all to be compensated for in the great sweep of 
 ages by this beneficial knowledge of evil, we are 
 
 * 2 Peter ii. 4. f Jude, 6. 
 
60 SCRIPTUEAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 led to the conclusion that sin and "buffering 
 are the necessary means of the greatest good. 
 But what manner of Supreme Being have we 
 here for a Universalist to love and worship? 
 His government, it would seem, cannot proceed 
 without suffering a host of angels, falling from 
 their thrones in heaven, to pass through centu- 
 ries of sin and mischief. This seems neither 
 benevolent nor wise. 
 
 In the exercise of their liberty we are told 
 that angels kept not their first estate, but left 
 their own habitation, and that God hath re- 
 served them in everlasting chains under dark- 
 ness unto the judgment of the great day. If 
 they are finally to be restored, God will restore 
 them, or they will come back of themselves. If 
 God foresaw that he must finally restore them, 
 he would have kept them from falling, unless sin 
 and misery are, under his government, the 
 means of the greatest good. If so, this may be 
 one of the cases in which if a little is good, more 
 is better ; and perhaps the best interests of the 
 universe will be promoted by 'protracting this 
 sin and sujffering indefinitely. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 61 
 
 It is a wholly gratuitous assumption that 
 fallen angels and men will at last, of their own 
 accord, repent. Who has travelled so far as to 
 know this? What reason have we to think 
 that hell will finally convince and persuade 
 men? All our present knowledge respecting it 
 contradicts this expectation. Satan and his an- 
 gels have tried its redeeming power, if it has 
 any, for at least six thousand ^^ears. We see no 
 premises, therefore, on which to base the asser- 
 tion that men will at last universally repent. It 
 does not appear that being in torment, even, will 
 have any better effect, forever, on men, than it 
 seems to have had on " the rich man," whose 
 only prayer to Abraham was for mitigation of 
 pain, and for a warning to be sent to his 
 brethren. He seems to think that if one went 
 to them from, the dead, they w^ould repent. 
 Why had he not repented himself, among the 
 dead ? Surely the very experience of hell itself 
 must be a more powerful means of good than a 
 mere apparition. But as suffering had not made 
 him penitent, il must be that it has no such 
 effect after death. Hell seems a very cruel 
 
62 SCRIPTUBAL AEGUMENT FOR 
 
 means of effecting the reformation of sinners, 
 when we think that, if employed for this pur- 
 pose through such great periods of punishment, 
 it will be employed by Him who so easily con- 
 verted Saul of Tarsus, and the woman that 
 was a sinner, and Zaccheus, and the thief on 
 the cross. This is, to my own mind, one of the 
 insuperable objections to the theory of future 
 disciplinary punishment. I can readily yield my 
 assent to the declaration that " he that belie veth 
 not the Son shall not see life;" it does no 
 violence to my understanding that those who 
 refuse salvation by Christ, when notified that 
 their refusal will be fatal, should reap forever 
 that which they sowed, and continue hereafter to 
 sow that which they reap, and thus without end. 
 I read this in the Bible. I have no controversy 
 with it. But that a human soul should need 
 ages in hell, with Satan and his angels, to be 
 made contrite, is as contrary to all analogy as it 
 is destitute of scriptural proof. Besides, if God 
 does all in this world which he can do without 
 destroying free agency, to convert certain men, 
 it is difficult to see how the use of superior 
 
FUTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 63 
 
 power in hell can fail to destroy it utterly. If 
 God does not use all proper means here to save 
 men, how is he infinitely merciful ? But if here 
 he goes to the very boundaries of their free 
 agency, which, it is said, he never passes over, 
 and yet fails to subdue them, it is gratuitous to 
 say that he will certainly succeed any better 
 hereafter. 
 
 How much longer than these six thousand 
 years past, angels are to suffer, we cannot tell ; 
 but the consignment of wicked men at the last 
 day to such company as that of " the devil and 
 his angels," looks fearfully unlike a remedial 
 measure for angel or man. 
 
 The last sentence is utterly inconsistent with 
 any expectation, or intention, on the part of 
 Christ, that those on whom it is pronounced will 
 return. Otherwise, he would not have pro- 
 nounced them cursed. Probationers are not 
 accursed. They are prisoners of hope. Every- 
 thing in the last words of Christ to the wicked 
 is as final as language can make it. 
 
 But if the wicked are to be punished until 
 they repent, we say, punishment thus far has 
 
64 SCHIPTUBAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 not reformed the original inhabitants of hell. It 
 is incumbent on those who advocate final resto- 
 ration on this ground, to prove that punishment 
 will at last have a restorative power, or they 
 must show how long the wicked must sin and 
 suffer to make it wrong to punish them any 
 more, even if they continue to sin. 
 
FUTURE, EITOLESS PUNISHMENT. 65 
 
 IV. 
 
 The terms used with regard to the resur- 
 rection of the dead, are proofs of endless 
 retribution. 
 
 IN the " Child's Catechism," by Rev. O. A. 
 Skinner, I find the following:* 
 
 " Q. Will sin exist in the resurrection ? 
 
 '' A. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and 
 blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; 
 neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.f 
 
 "Q, What does the Saviour say respecting 
 our condition when raised? 
 
 " A. Neither can they die any more ; for they 
 are equal unto the angels ; and are the children 
 of God, being children of the resurrection." J 
 
 Here, it will be seen, it is assumed that Christ 
 refers to all the dead, and that all, when they 
 are raised, will be the children of God. This, 
 it is understood, is the prevailing belief of 
 Universalists. 
 
 * Page 24. f 1 Cor. xv. 50. X Mark xii. 25. 
 
 5 
 
66 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMIJNT FOR 
 
 We read that " no Scripture is of any private 
 interpretation;" in other words, that the mean- 
 ing must be ascertained by comparing the Scrip- 
 tures one with another. The parallel passage in 
 Luke reads : " But they that shall be accounted 
 worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection 
 from the dead, neither marry nor are given in 
 marriage ; neither, can they die any more, for 
 they are equal unto the angels; and are the 
 children of God, being the children of the resur- 
 rection." * 
 
 Our esteemed friend, Mr. Skinner, it seems 
 to me, is led into a mistake by regarding the 
 expression, " children of the resurrection," as 
 meaning all who have part in the resurrection ; 
 and since Jesus declares '' the children of the 
 resurrection" to be synonymous with ''children 
 of God," Mr. S. naturally concludes that all who 
 rise from the dead will be the children of God. 
 
 Now, allowing, for the sake of the argu- 
 ment, that the wicked are raised from the dead 
 in their sins, they are not, in the scriptural 
 sense, '' children of the resurrection." Rising 
 from the dead does not make us " children of the 
 
 * Luke XX. 35, 36. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 6< 
 
 resurrection." Being the offspring of God does 
 not make us the " children of God; " the wicked 
 would not "come forth to everlasting life," 
 though coming forth to live forever. The term 
 '' children of the resurrection " connects with 
 itself the further idea of being qualified for 
 heaven, — " counted worthy to obtain that 
 world." This is confirmed, it seems to me, be- 
 yond all question, by one word of the apostle 
 Paul, " I count all things but loss, &c., if hy any 
 means I might attain unto the resurrection of the 
 dead''^ If, on being raised from the dead, all 
 men are to be fit for heaven, Paul need not have 
 used such "means" to "attain" to it, nor, in- 
 deed, any "means" whatever; for he was sure 
 to be raised, like the rest of mankind. Adopt 
 the interpretation just given, viz., that to be 
 accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection 
 from the dead includes the idea of a distin- 
 guishing fitness for heaven, body and soul re- 
 united, and we can see why Paul should say he 
 was willing to count all things but loss to attain 
 unto it, — rising from the dead with his per- 
 fected nature, body and soul being, in his view, 
 
 *Phil. iii. 8-11. 
 
68 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 the consummation of preparedness, in every 
 respect, for heaven. If such be Paul's meaning 
 of " attaining unto the resurrection of the dead," 
 the wicked, in their sins, though raised from the 
 dead, do not attain unto the resurrection, and 
 they are not, therefore, in the Saviour's sense, 
 "children of the resurrection." 
 
 The Sadducees had said, '' Whose wife shall 
 she be in the resurrection?" I will paraphrase 
 the reply of Christ according to my interpreta- 
 tion of his words : " It is, of course, no use for 
 me to answer your question on the supposition 
 that the woman and her seven husbands are not 
 among the saved. They that have done evil 
 ' shall come forth,' as I once said, * to the resur- 
 rection of damnation.' Conjugal relationships 
 among them, or anything relating to happiness, 
 are not supposable. Your inquiry, therefore, 
 relates, of course, to those who are supposed to 
 be in a condition to admit of friendly and loving 
 relationships. As to them, I say, that being ac- 
 counted worthy to obtain that world, and after- 
 wards such a resurrection as is worthy of the 
 name, they stand in no need of earthly joys, and 
 as they die no more, the necessity for repro- 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 69 
 
 duction ceases ; they are equal unto the angels, 
 and are the children of God, being, in distinction 
 from the rest of the risen dead, ' children of the 
 resurrection.' " 
 
 The meaning of the phrase is also illustrated 
 by the expression, '' children of this world." 
 Good people are, in one sense, " children of this 
 world," equally with the bad; that is, they are 
 natives of this world ; and yet we read, " the 
 children of this world are wiser in their genera- 
 tion than the children of lights 
 
 Thus, the good only are " children of the res- 
 urrection," though all are raised ; as the wicked 
 only are " children of this world," though bad 
 and good live here together. 
 
 Paul said before Felix, and declared that the 
 Jews " themselves also allow " it (for the Sad- 
 ducees were small in number, though high in 
 rank and power), "-Hhat there shall he a resur- 
 rection of the dead^ both of the just and unjust ^ * 
 
 The idea advanced by Mr. Skinner and others, 
 that all who are raised from the dead are chil- 
 dren of God, grows, therefore, out of his mis- 
 take, as I view it, in interpreting the expression, 
 
 * Acts xxiv. 15. 
 
70 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 ''children of the resurrection" to mean all the 
 risen dead. Enough has been said in explana- 
 tion of the opposite, and, as we believe, the 
 more scriptural sense of the phrase. It seems 
 to us unaccountable that any should adopt the 
 idea that all who are raised from the dead will 
 be the children of God, if they have ever read 
 the parables of Christ in Matt. xiii. How does 
 he there say it shall be in the end of the world ? 
 ^' So shall it be in the end of the world. The 
 Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they 
 shall gather aut of his kingdom all things that 
 offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast 
 them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing 
 and gnashing of teeth." The same words are 
 repeated at the close of the parable of the net. 
 Surely there will be some of the risen dead who 
 will not be '' children of the resurrection," be- 
 cause they will not be the " children of God." 
 
 I proceed now to the argument to be derived 
 from the declarations of Christ in connection 
 with the resurrection. Christ said, " The hour 
 is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear 
 the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear 
 shall live." This he said to illustrate his com- 
 
FUTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 71 
 
 mission to bestow spiritual life on those who are 
 dead in sin. Then he proceeds at once to assert 
 a power in confirmation of this, in the way of 
 miracle. " Marvel not at this," — (at my power 
 to regenerate the soul,) "for the hour is com- 
 ing" (notice that he does not here add — "and 
 now is") "when all that are in their graves 
 shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they 
 that have done good to the resurrection of life, 
 and they that have done evil to the resurrection 
 of damnation." 
 
 " All that are in their graves " includes all 
 who die, from Abel to the last victim of death 
 and the grave. " They that have done evil," of 
 course, then, are there. Now, it appears that 
 they who have done evil will not have atoned, 
 in the intermediate state, for the deeds done in 
 the body, because the Saviour says they will 
 come forth " to the resurrection of damnation." 
 But some of them will have been for a very long 
 time in the separate state. Wherever the rich 
 man went at death, he was " in torment; " there 
 were men before his day, and there have been 
 men since his time, who were as wicked as he. 
 But can sin be punished "in torment" so long? 
 
72 SCETPTUEAL AEGUMENT FOR 
 
 Peter tells us that there were " spirits " in his 
 day ''in prison," to whom Christ preached by 
 the Spirit in the days of Noah, — that is at least 
 three thousand j^ears before. That is a long 
 time for sin to he punished, or even for a sinner 
 to be detained, under the government of a good 
 God. Now, these are yet to " come forth unto 
 the resurrection of damnation." If sin can be 
 so punished by the Infinite Father, and if bodies 
 are to be added to these souls, notwithstanding 
 this already protracted experience of misery, 
 and if they, body and soul, are at the last day 
 to be doomed to " fire, prepared for the devil 
 and his angels," on what principles can all this 
 be explained? Does sin merit such punishment, 
 as the Bible declares has already been inflicted ? 
 "Would an earthly parent punish 'thus ? " Is 
 there not enough, in this ascertained infliction 
 of punishment for sin, to destroy all confidence 
 in the government of God, unless sin deserves it 
 all ? And if it deserves all this, we know not 
 how much more it may deserve. 
 
 It will be observed, in addition, that Christ 
 does not tell us, they that have done evil^ hut by 
 the power of discipline^ shall have repented^ shall 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 73 
 
 come forth to the resurrection of life, and the 
 incorrigible to the resurrection of a further dis- 
 cipline. How is this ? Has not the long inter- 
 val between death and the resurrection resulted 
 in the salvation of any ? S'trange that some of 
 the more hopeful of the wicked should not. 
 have availed themselves of the opportunity be- 
 tween death and the judgment, to confess and 
 repent. 
 
 It is contrary to all analogy that it should be 
 necessary to punish men so long before they 
 repent. On the deck, or in the rigging, of a 
 burning vessel at sea, when death is absolutely 
 certain, it is to be presumed that it does not 
 take a wicked man very long to decide with 
 what feelings he will meet his God. When the 
 soul, after death, finds itself on the way to hell, 
 can we suppose that an opportunity to escape, 
 by repentance, if it were offered, would be re- 
 jected ? If the only object of God is to reclaim 
 the sinner, he will release him the first moment 
 that he repents. It is so in this world. "And 
 when he was yet a great way off, his father saw 
 him and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his 
 neck, and kissed him." If the soul, at the sight 
 
74 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 of its punishment, relents and agrees to the 
 terms of pardon, does a Universalist believe 
 that God will say, '' No ; you must suffer in 
 hell for j'^our sins, even though you have now- 
 repented " ? Would an earthly father inflict 
 punishment in such a case ? But the Bible 
 represents the wicked to have been in hell from 
 the time of their death till the resurrection, and 
 at the resurrection they must yet come forth "to 
 the resurrection of damnation." It is incredible 
 that so much time and so much suffering should 
 be necessary to make sinners repent. Either 
 they repent, and God still continues to punish 
 them " ages on ages ; " or they do not repent 
 between death and the resurrection, nor at the 
 judgment-seat of Christ, nor in the immediate 
 prospect of going away to the society and the 
 punishment of the devil and his angels. If a 
 soul which is finally to be reclaimed, can pass 
 through such experience and not repent, it re- 
 quires larger hope and faith than is common to 
 men to expect that future punishment can be a 
 means of salvation. 
 
 That the guilt of a finite creature, man or 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 75 
 
 angel, should merit thousands of years in hell, 
 or that thousands of years should be requisite to 
 bring him to his right mind, no more accords 
 with our natural feelings, nor with what we call 
 "reason," than does the idea of endless punish- 
 ment. But if the Bible conveys anything intel- 
 ligibly to our understanding, it teaches that an- 
 gels and men have been subjected to punishment 
 for a longer period than is "reasonable "for mere 
 discipline. 
 
 Surely, the end of future punishment cannot 
 be merely the recovery of the sinner. Were it 
 so, moreover, it would follow that sin injures no 
 one but the sinner himself. It violates no duties 
 towards God, no interests of fellow-creatures. 
 But the law of God refutes this ; the threat- 
 enings against those who cause others to fall, 
 and the frequent punishment of men who made 
 others to sin, prove that the punishment of the 
 sinner will have some other end than his refor- 
 mation. 
 
 It being frequently argued that the sins of 
 a finite creature cannot be punished forever, 
 because a finite creature cannot merit infinite 
 
76 SCRIPTUEAL ABGUMENT FOR 
 
 punishment, it will be enough to meet this, in 
 passing, with a single remark, viz. : That, if this 
 be so, then, even if the whole universe should sin 
 forever, the whole universe cannot be punished 
 forever, because the whole universe, after all, is 
 but finite. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 77 
 
 The Scriptures teach that the law of God has 
 a curse: — which it has not, if future pun- 
 ishraent be disciplinary. 
 
 THE punishment, however long and severe, 
 which shall result in restoring a soul to 
 holiness and an endless heaven, under the 
 kind and faithful administration of its heavenly 
 Father, it would be unsuitable to call "a curse." 
 The theory of Restorationists is, that mercy, 
 having failed to recover sinners in this world, 
 will go on hereafter, in the same direction, 
 with more vigorous methods, till it succeeds, — 
 the same undying, unfaltering love pursuing the 
 wanderer, which here never ceased to plead. 
 Hereafter it will mingle stronger ingredients, and 
 cure the disease of sin. What " curse " there 
 is in such loving-kindness, it is hard to see. In 
 this world we experience just this treatment: 
 
 " Afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes ; 
 Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in ; " 
 
78 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 and sometimes all the waves and billows go 
 over us. Men are stripped of property, family, 
 health, reputation, and finally they turn to the 
 hand that smites them, grateful that God did not 
 spare the rod for their crying; and they testify 
 that through the loss of all things they have 
 gained eternal bliss. Do they call their afflic- 
 tions their " curse " ? Have they suffered "the 
 curse of the law " ? All the ordinary medicines 
 having failed, the physician brings some extreme 
 remedy and saves the patient. Was that a 
 " curse " ? He amputates the limb, and thus 
 prolongs a precious life. Did he " curse " the 
 man in doing so ? We must, therefore, expunge 
 large parts of the Bible if future punishment be 
 only a wholesome discipline. " Christ has re- 
 del&med us from the curse of the law, being made 
 a curse for us." No; he has only redeemed us 
 from a further dispensation of infinite mercy, if 
 punishment be only for discipline ; indeed, he 
 prevents the bestowment of a greater proof of 
 love than he himself gave us in dying on the 
 cross; for if, after all his love for us, he will 
 persist in disciplining us in hell, willing to see 
 us suffer that he may finally save us, '' herein is 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 79 
 
 love." The cross is not the climax of his love, 
 but the lake of fire. How it is in any sense a 
 curse, we fail to see. Christians here never look 
 upon the means of sanctification as ''the curse 
 of the law." The sinner who by the severest 
 discipline is brought to Christ, feels that he 
 thereby escapes '' the curse of the law." But 
 we cannot find that curse, neither here nor here- 
 after, unless there be punishment which is not 
 intended for the recovery of the sinner. 
 
80 SCKIPTUEAL AEGUMENT FOE 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Sentence passed upon the wicked indis- 
 criminately, forbids the idea of discipline in 
 future punishment. 
 
 AMONG the impenitent at death and in 
 eternity there is, of course, great variety 
 of character. If the object of future punish- 
 ment be to reclaim them, the wise and consid- 
 erate methods of earthly discipline seem to be 
 utterly discarded after death. We hardly need 
 to be reminded how indiscriminate are the 
 threatenings which are said to be inflicted on 
 the wicked. The last sentence evidently re- 
 gards none of them as probationers ; there is no 
 forbearance in it towards the more hopeful ; 
 they are all addressed as ''ye cursed." We are 
 considering the testimony of the Scriptures. 
 What evidence do they afford of any discrimi- 
 nation in the treatment of the finally impenitent, 
 notwithstanding the vast variety which must 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 81 
 
 exist among them? I answer, Not any. But 
 the following passages, among others, teach 
 plainly that the doom of the wicked will be . 
 indiscriminate, without regard to hopeful diver- 
 sities of character. 
 
 " And I saw the dead, small and great, stand 
 before God, and the books were opened, and 
 another book was opened, which is the book 
 of life; and the dead were judged out of the 
 things which were written in the book, accord- 
 ing to their works. And the sea gave up the 
 dead which were in it, and death and hell de- 
 livered up the dead which were in them ; and 
 they were judged every man according to their 
 works." Then follows this declaration: ^'And 
 death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. 
 This is the second death." Some say, death and 
 hell are annihilated. But this is not the idea 
 intended, unless the wicked also are then to be 
 annihilated ; for the next verse, concluding the 
 subject, says, "And whosoever yas not found 
 written in the book of life was cast into the 
 lake of fire." The obvious meaning is. Death 
 and hell, whatever they represent, will then be 
 added to the lake of fire, whatever that is, as 
 6 
 
82 SCEIPTUEAL AKGUMENT FOE 
 
 new ingredients, and to constitute " the second 
 death," and as a final gathering together of all 
 the elements of sorrow and pain, with all the 
 wicked, into one place. With this passage agree 
 the words of Daniel : " And many of them that 
 sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some 
 to everlasting life, and some to shame and 
 everlasting contempt." The parables of Christ 
 relating to the end of the world recognize only- 
 two great divisions of men at the last day. 
 Wheat and tares only are to be in the ''field;" 
 good and bad only, in the "net." The wheat is 
 saved, the tares are burned; ''the good" in the 
 net are gathered into vessels; "the bad" are 
 none of them dismissed for amendment, or 
 growth, but are "cast away." And Christ tells 
 us that every human being will stand at his 
 right hand, or left hand, "blessed," or "cursed." 
 Now, when we call to mind the justice of 
 God, and reflect that undue severity, or the 
 laying on man more than is meet, would alienate 
 the confidence of the good from the Most High, 
 and when we consider the declaration of Christ, 
 that sins of ignorance shall receive but " few 
 stripes," and we still perceive that the human 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 83 
 
 race are evidently to fall at last into two di- 
 visions, which will include the whole, with their 
 countless diversities and degrees as to character 
 in each division, we infer that no provision is 
 made for a more hopeful class to enjoy a further 
 trial. All upon the left hand are doomed alike. 
 If there is to be a new probation after death, the 
 Bible surely does not teach it. 
 
 [^IVBESITTj 
 
84 SCEIPTUEAL AEGUMENT FOE 
 
 VII. 
 
 The duration of future punishment is expressed 
 in the New Testament by the terms employed 
 to denote absolute eternity. 
 
 THERE is, we all admit, such a thing as 
 forever. If the Bible speaks of the natural 
 attributes of God, his eternity is of course 
 brought to view, and there must be a term, or 
 terms, to convey the idea. 
 
 Now it is apparent to all, that the words 
 eternal^ everlasting^ forever^ never of themselves 
 signify a limited duration. No one ever learns 
 from these words that the duration to which 
 they refer is less than infinite. The idea of 
 limitation, if it be obtained, always is derived 
 from the context. 
 
 It is moreover true, beyond the possibility of 
 dispute, that the words eternal^ everlasting^ and 
 forever^ always mean the whole of something. 
 There is no instance in which they are used to 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 85 
 
 denote a part of a thing's duration. It is always 
 the entire period for which that thing is to last. 
 This no one will call in question. 
 
 It is well understood that the words " for- 
 ever," and " everlasting," are used to express 
 a duration commensurate with the nature of the 
 thing spoken of. " Everlasting mountains " are 
 coeval with creation, and are to endure as long 
 as the earth. "A servant forever" is a servant 
 for life. We cannot take the sense which the 
 word has in connection with a certain thing, and 
 by it prove or disprove anything relating to a 
 totally different thing. We cannot prove, for 
 example, that mountains will not last to the end 
 of time, because forever^ applied to a servant, 
 means only for life. We must consider the 
 nature of the object to which the word is ap- 
 plied. When it is applied to the Most High, 
 of course it means unlimited duration. Now the 
 words which convey the idea of absolute eternity 
 are applied, for example, to mountains, and to 
 future punishment, and to the being and govern- 
 ment of God. This, then, is certain : Because 
 forever^ when applied to some things, does not 
 mean absolute eternity, it does not follow that it 
 
50 SCBIPTURAL ABGUMENT FOR 
 
 does not mean eternity when applied to future 
 retribution. If it were so, we could not convey 
 the idea of the eternity of God ; for it could be 
 said that for ever is sometimes applied to a limited 
 duration. That is true ; now if this proves that 
 future punishment is not forever, it must also 
 prove that the being of God is not forever. 
 
 Two things are beyond dispute: 1. Forever 
 and everlasting are applied to future retribu- 
 tions. 2. These terms always mean the whole^ 
 as to duration, of that with which they stand 
 connected. If applied to life, it is the whole of 
 life ; if to the existence of the world, it is the 
 entire period of its existence ; if to a covenant, 
 the covenant is either without limit as to time, 
 or it is the whole of the duration which the 
 subject permits ; and when applied to Jehovah, 
 it refers to his whole eternity. 
 
 What, then, does it mean, when applied to fu- 
 ture retribution? It always means the whole of 
 something. Is it the whole of future existence ? 
 No one can base a denial of it on the ground 
 that the word, when applied to human life, 
 means only a few years, or a limited duration 
 when applied to the earth. For, how is it when 
 
FUTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 87 
 
 applied to God and the happiness of heaven? 
 It is certainly the place of any who deny endless 
 retributions, to show that the words cannot 
 mean the whole of future existence when applied 
 to punishment. The words mean the whole of 
 future existence when applied, by the .use of the 
 same Greek words in the same passages, to the 
 happiness of the righteous. The objector must 
 show that when applied to the future life, they 
 mean only a part of it, notwithstanding they 
 always mean tJie whole of everything else with 
 which they stand connected. 
 
 Such are some of the considerations, drawn 
 from the word of God, which satisfy my own 
 mind that retributions after death are without 
 end. Mr. Foster speaks of it as '' the general, 
 not very far short of universal, judgment of 
 divines." Such multitudes of the best of men 
 and women are still firmly persuaded of its 
 truth, that we are led to say, there must be a 
 foundation for it in the word of God, — and for 
 this reason : If mankind could have divested 
 themselves of the conviction that it is not found 
 in the word of God, it is reasonable to think 
 
88 SCEIPTUKAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 that it would loDg since have been discarded. 
 Nay, rather, who would have invented such a 
 doctrine? Good men would not have palmed it 
 upon the world, for more reasons than one. , Be- 
 sides, many an error has been exploded ; it is 
 unaccountable, if this be error, that it should 
 have kept its hold upon the hurfian mind. No 
 Protestant, it would seem, would quote a belief 
 in purgatory as a parallel case. We have no 
 coercion, nor any kind of motive to bias our 
 minds towards this article of faith. We use no 
 terms on this subject, — certainly we approve of 
 none, which are not derived from the Bible. 
 We are not superstitious, nor fanatical, nor 
 priest-ridden, nor cruel ; and we think we have 
 far more exalted reasons for believing in the in- 
 finite love of God than any have who do not see 
 it, as we do, in the atoning cross. However 
 good and amiable the opposers of this doctrine 
 may be, tliey will not assume that they are more 
 humane, more pitiful, more gentle, more the 
 friends of God and man, than those who believe 
 it. In view of the hold which it has on the 
 minds of men, it would be so great a marvel 
 that the doctrine should not be found in the 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 89 
 
 Scriptures, that nothing could be more astound- 
 ing, not even the fearful truth itself. 
 
 And that it may be seen, further, how we are 
 confirmed in our persuasion that we read the 
 Bible aright, I refer not only, as above, to the 
 convictions of believers that the doctrine is 
 scriptural, but to the positive statements of 
 some who have rejected it. 
 
 Mr. Foster tells us: "And the language of 
 Scripture is formidably strong, — so strong that 
 it must be an argument of extreme cogency that 
 would authorize a limited interpretation." 
 
 Dr. Thomas Burnett, an English divine, writ- 
 ing in favor of final restoration, says : ''Human 
 nature revolts from the very name of future 
 punishment. But the sacred Scriptures seem to 
 be on the other side."* 
 
 One effect of the recent discussion of this sub- 
 ject in this city has been to elicit from a distin- 
 guished advocate of final restoration, the fol- 
 lowing statement: 
 
 " And yet I freely say that I do not find the 
 doctrine of the ultimate salvation of all souls 
 
 * *' Natura humana abhorret ab ipso nomine poenarum 
 aeternarum. At Scriptura sacra a partibus contrariis stare 
 videtur." — De Statu Mort. et Resurg., p. 228, 2d ed. 
 
90 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 clearly stated in any text or in any discourse 
 that has ever been reported from the lips of 
 Christ. I do not think that we can fairly main- 
 tain that the final restoration of all men is a 
 prominent and explicit doctrine of the four gos- 
 pels." * 
 
 To this, I am able to add the explicit testi- 
 mony of Rev. Theodore Parker. Wishing to 
 verify a quotation which a friend had tried in 
 vain to find for me in one of Mr. Parker's vol- 
 umes, I addressed a note to Mr. Parker, asking 
 him to give me the reference. The following 
 polite and obliging answer will speak for itself. 
 All the italics are Mr. Parker's. 
 
 ''Boston, Dec. 1, 1858. 
 
 " Rev. Dr. Adams. 
 
 " Dear Sir : I am ill now, and cannot recol- 
 lect that the passage you refer to occurs in any 
 of my volumes ; yet it might, in several. I am 
 sure it does in some printed sermo7is — pam- 
 phlets, but cannot now say Avhich. I will try to 
 find the passage. 
 
 " To me it is quite clear that Jesus taught the 
 doctrine of eternal damnation^ if the Evangelists 
 — the first three, I mean — are to be treated as 
 
 * Rev. T. S. King's Two Discourses, p. 5. 
 
FUTUBE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 91 
 
 inspired. I can understand his language in no 
 other way. But as the Protestant sects start 
 with the notion — which to me is a monstrous 
 one — that the words of the New Testament are 
 all miraculously inspired by God, and so infal- 
 libly true ; and as- this doctrine of eternal dam- 
 nation is so revolting to all the humane and moral 
 feelings of our nature, men said ' the words must 
 be interpreted in another way.' So as the Uni- 
 tarians have misinterpreted the New Testament 
 to prove that the Christos of the fourth gospel 
 had no preexistence, the Universalists misinter- 
 preted other passages of the gospels to show 
 that Jesus of Nazareth never taught eternal dam- 
 nation. So the geologists misinterpret Genesis 
 to-day — to save the divine infallible character 
 of the text. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 " Theodore Paeker." 
 
 It was but fair to let Mr. Parker state his 
 whole belief on this subject. Thus, in his view, 
 if the Evangelists are to be believed, Christ 
 taught that future retributions are to be endless. 
 
 There is nothing to be surprised at in this ; 
 but it will be seen that it is not without good 
 reason that those who receive the Bible impli- 
 citly as the word of God, have so generally 
 
92 SCRIPTUBAL ABGUMENT FOR 
 
 believed in endless retribution as a doctrine of 
 Scripture. 
 
 The question then arises, whether our hu- 
 man instincts, or divine revelations, whether 
 man the sinner, or God the sovereign, shall dic- 
 tate the penalty of sin? Mr. Foster, seeking 
 relief to his mind from the terrible idea of endless 
 sin and miser}^ says of the doctrine of the an- 
 nihilation of the wicked, " It would be a pro- 
 digious relief." Some one respectfully replies 
 to him that " the divine government is not for 
 the relief of the imagination, but for the relief 
 of the universe." 
 
 The question is often asked. How, allowing 
 endless retribution to be a scriptural doctrine, 
 can you have peace of mind in your belief? 
 
 I answer, We believe that no one will perish 
 who does not reject the Saviour of the world ; 
 or, if he be a heathen, does not sin against light 
 and conviction sufficient to save him. 
 
 It has an effect to quiet our minds when we 
 reflect that our thoughts and feelings at the loss 
 of the soul were surpassed in Him whose soul 
 for us was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. 
 Tears were shed by him over sinners — "God 
 
FUTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 93 
 
 hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." If the 
 thought of endless retribution is so terrible to 
 us. who know so little about it, we are con- 
 strained to think that there was never any sor- 
 row like unto the sorrow of him, who loved us 
 and gave himself for us, when he sees that he 
 must, nevertheless, pronounce upon any for 
 whom he died, the sentence of that everlasting 
 punishment from which he became incarnate, 
 and died to save us. Great as our astonishment 
 and sorrow are, we cannot forget that they are 
 infinitely less than his. If, through grace, we 
 are saved, we look to him, who knows what his 
 own tears have been, to wipe away all tears from 
 our eyes. 
 
 We also consider that the basis of future pun- 
 ishment is a chosen and cherished state of mind, 
 which leads men here to reject Christ, notwith- 
 standing his known character and his efforts for 
 them. This may lead them still to reject him ; 
 for, as already stated, we do not find that even 
 the loss of heaven and the experience of chains 
 under darkness, have reconciled lost angels to 
 God. While they choose to sin, therefore, we 
 
94 SCEIPTUEAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 see no injustice in their being punished, even if 
 they sin forever. 
 
 That the Bible contains forewarnings and in- 
 structions which ought to be sufficient to deter 
 men from future misery, we learn even from 
 the reply of Abraham to the rich man in hell. 
 The rich man desired that Lazarus might be sent 
 to his father's house with testimony concerning 
 that " place of torment." Abraham replied that 
 " they have Moses and the prophets, let them 
 hear them." The rich man could have easily 
 reminded Abraham, if truth permitted, that 
 there is nothing about that place in the Old 
 Testament. He makes no such answer, but 
 pleads the supposed efficacy of a visitor from the 
 unseen world. Abraham replied, that such a 
 visitor could have no effect on those who do not 
 believe the testimony of the Old Testament on 
 that subject. All this is from the lips of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Inasmuch as we cast no blame on God for the 
 present condition and conduct of cannibals, and 
 pagans, and atheists, and blasphemers, and slave- 
 traders, and every other description of wicked 
 men, (neither do they themselves impute blame 
 
FUTUBE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 95 
 
 to him,) we do not feel that God will be re- 
 sponsible for the endless wickedness and misery 
 of sinners ; nor will they charge him with 
 injustice more than they now do. 
 
 We believe that the God of the New Testa- 
 ment is the same unchangeable God of the 
 Old Testament; that Christ has not modified 
 the divine character, nor altered one principle 
 of the divine administration ; but that the New 
 Testament reveals the mercy of God in full- 
 orbed beauty, though its outlines were always 
 visible from the beginning ; that all which was 
 terrible in the God who destroyed the old world, 
 and Sodom and Gomorrha, and cast down rebel 
 angels from heaven to hell, is still the same, 
 and that when mercy has failed under the New 
 Testament to recover sinners, the God of the 
 Old Testament and of the New will be their 
 Judge and King. We read that '' it is a fearful 
 thing to fall into the hands of the living God." 
 '' For our God is a consuming fire." And we 
 have our choice, to love and serve such a God as 
 this, or to reject him and take the consequences. 
 Our private experience persuades us that He is 
 good. He has always been just and kind, gentle, 
 
96 SCRIPTUBAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 easy to be entreated. In all our afflictions he was 
 afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved us. 
 Knowing this, his stern, uncompromising hatred 
 of sin, his power to inflict suffering and to look 
 upon it forever, if necessary, give us confidence 
 in Him. We may need such attributes for the 
 foundation of our safety and of our confidence 
 in God, as much as that attribute which we now 
 separate from the rest of his character and call 
 his love. 
 
 We believe that the Bible teaches — for 
 surely it follows of course from all which has 
 now been adduced — that some proportion of 
 pain and misery will forever exist under the 
 government of God. The idea that they are 
 to be wholly expurgated is contradicted by the 
 Scriptures, and is mere fancy. But the scale 
 of things being hereafter enlarged to our ap- 
 prehension, and the reasons for one thing and 
 another which are now but partially explained, 
 being more fully apparent, we think we see in 
 the present feelings of good citizens with regard 
 to law, and punishments, and the officers of 
 justice, how future pain and misery, in their 
 relation to the infinitely blessed system of gov- 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 97 
 
 ernment over a universe of free agents, will 
 by no means diminish the happiness of that 
 multitude of obedient souls which no man can 
 number. 
 
 I have always been struck by the consid- 
 eration, that the passages from which Univer- 
 salists infer the final happiness of all men, do 
 not occur in the Bible in connection with the 
 punishment of the wicked. This is of the ut- 
 most importance. It is one presumptive proof 
 that, occurring as they do apart from any men- 
 tion of the punishment of the wicked, they 
 belong to other subjects. And so we find them, 
 in connection with the blessedness of the right- 
 eous, the ultimate victories of Christ over his 
 enemies, his final reign, and the happiness of 
 heaven. But we look in vain for passages where 
 promises, prophecies, hints of ultimate resto- 
 ration, occur in connection with the subject of 
 future punishment. It will not be disputed that 
 there are passages which seem to teach future 
 endless punishmentj and the attempt is to show 
 that they are "metaphorical." But some ap- 
 pear to think that metaphorical means fictitious, 
 7 
 
98 SCBIPTTJRAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 unreal; on the contrary, ^'metaphorical" lan- 
 guage is generally the stronger way of asserting 
 anything, being resorted to for the purpose of 
 intensifying the expression. But how remark- 
 able it is that we find no clause nor phrase, 
 neither literal, nor " metaphorical," limiting the 
 main drift of a passage which speaks of future 
 endless punishment, or suggesting the idea of 
 restoration. The bold, terrific language of Scrip- 
 ture, asserting the future punishment of the 
 wicked, has not one word of qualification. 
 
 "We frequently meet with such representations 
 and illustrations as the following, in modern 
 writers, — from whom I had intended to quote 
 several passages ; but the following statement 
 of their views will suffice: — The soul is God's 
 child. Will a good mother ever cast away her 
 offspring? No; neither will the great "Mother 
 of us all," — the love of God. The worst of 
 men — the Judases, the Neros, and Caligulas — 
 will at last fulfil their career of sin and sorrow, 
 and return to the bosom of God. As the earth 
 in some parts of its orbit drives av^ay from the 
 sun, but soon comes ''rounding back again," so 
 every creature that God ever made, Satan and 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 99 
 
 all (if there be any Satan), will at last accom- 
 plish its terrible career, and, passing its solstice, 
 rejoice in a new moral existence. 
 
 The brief reply to all such fancies is this: 
 Have we a Bible ? Does it give ns any intima- 
 tion of such a revolution, such an orbit, for the 
 lost soul? We read of "wandering stars, to 
 whom is reserved the mist of darkness forever 
 and ever; " but where does the Bible, in speak- 
 ing of the spirit launching forth on its aphelion, 
 intimate that its path is a cycle, and not a 
 straight line? 
 
 We see one part of the race "go away into 
 everlasting punishment." But this is said to be 
 merely "a metaphor." We will be grateful 
 even for " a metaphor," if there be any, repre- 
 senting their return. 
 
 We have lately been furnished, from high 
 authority in the Universalist denomination, with 
 some of the principal proof texts in the dis- 
 courses of Christ in favor of the salvation of 
 all men. They occur in the review already 
 spoken of, (in the preface to this article,) writ- ' 
 ten by Rev. Dr. Thomas Whittemore, in which 
 
100 SCEIPTUKAL AEGUMENT FOR 
 
 he endeavors to answer Rev. T. S. King's asser- 
 tion, that he could not find any text or discourse 
 of Christ which contains the doctrine of the 
 final happiness of all men. Dr. Whittemore, of 
 course, would here bring forth some of his 
 strong proofs, for he says of Mr. King's dis- 
 course: "We think they will do as much to 
 break down Universalism as to break down the 
 doctrine of endless misery." The following are 
 Dr. Whittemore's quotations from the words of 
 Christ, to prove that he taught the final sal- 
 vation of all men. 
 
 1. " This is indeed the Christ, the Saviour 
 of the world."* Dr. Whittemore gives an ex- 
 tended exposition of the discourse of Christ at 
 the well of Samaria, which gave occasion to 
 these words of the Samaritans ; and he says : 
 " Jesus Christ, let it be remembered, is declared 
 to be the Saviour of the world ; and how could 
 he be justly called the Saviour of the world if 
 the world shall never be saved ? " f 
 
 2. "All things are delivered unto me of my 
 Father." This is a major premise. "All that 
 the Father, hath given me shall come to me," is 
 
 * John iv. 42. f p. 390. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 101 
 
 the minor premise. " To come to Christ is to 
 become a Christian."* This involves the ergo 
 oi the proposition. He adds, " We have by no 
 means exhausted our proof; "f and he gives us, 
 
 3. " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
 will draw all men unto me." We have the word 
 of Christ for it, — " will draw all men unto me." % 
 
 4. " Jesus answered. Ye do err, not knowing 
 the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in 
 the resurrection, they neither marry nor are 
 given in marriage, but are as the angels of God 
 in heaven." " If angels are holy, mankind are 
 to be holy; if angels are to be happy, mankind 
 are to be happy." " This is a distinct and posi- 
 tive declaration of the purity and happiness of 
 all men." " How, then," Dr. W. says, " can 
 we adopt the language of Mr. Eang, and say, 
 * I do not find the doctrine,' &c. Strange de- 
 claration ! Jesus joined two great facts together, 
 the resurrection of all men, and their exaltation 
 to the condition of angels." § 
 
 Such passages are, in the opinion of Dr. Whit- 
 temore, a plain, obvious refutation, from Christ 
 himself, of that, in Dr. Whittemore's view, dan- 
 
 * p. 391. t p. 392. X P- 395. § p. 395. 
 
102 SCRIPTUBAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 gerous assertion by Mr. King, viz., " the ultimate 
 salvation of all souls is not clearly tauglit in any 
 text or discourse in the gospels." 
 
 The principal topics which have now been 
 considered are these : 
 
 The Scriptures reveal a future state of reward 
 and punishment. 
 
 They teach that the body and soul will be 
 joined in future happiness and misery. 
 
 Christ teaches that God can destroy both body 
 and soul in hell. If God cannot morally do this, 
 the declaration is unintelligible ; it answers no 
 purpose of instruction. 
 
 Future punishment will therefore be a natural 
 operation of moral laws, sustained and made 
 effectual by the hand of God upon the sinner, 
 who, by his state of depravity, will be made sus- 
 ceptible to misery forever. 
 
 The essential elements of misery remain in 
 the wicked after death. 
 
 Redemption by Christ is represented as haviug 
 for its object salvation from final perdition. 
 
 The work of the Holy Spirit as a j)art of re- 
 demption, andjthe unpardonable sin against Him, 
 
FUTUBE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 103 
 
 prove that the present is the final effort to save 
 men. 
 
 None of the passages relied on to prove final 
 restoration occur in connection with the subject 
 of future punishment, but with the reign of 
 Christ, and the happiness of the righteous. 
 
 No passage in the Bible discloses the future 
 repentance of the wicked. 
 
 Promises of restoration, made to sinners who 
 in this world were to become penitent, always 
 occur in connection with threatenings and doom. 
 No such promises are made in connection with 
 the threatenings of future punishment, or with 
 the final doom of the wicked. 
 
 The Bible closes with an express declaration 
 of the future unchangeableness of character. 
 
 There are no prophetic visions in the New 
 Testament which contemplate deliverance from 
 hell, and corresponding to visions of God's 
 ancient people in captivity, and of their release 
 and restoration. 
 
 The fall of angels, and of men, is a confirma- 
 tory argument in favor of future punishment, 
 seeing that if God did not keep them from fall- 
 ing, he can consistently refuse to restore them. 
 
104 SCBIPTUBAL ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 The terms used with regard to the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead, show that the wicked will have 
 experienced no change since death, but will come 
 forth from their graves to the resurrection of 
 damnation. 
 
 If the wicked are punished hereafter merely 
 for their own good, there is no such thing as sin 
 against God or our neighbor; — which is con- 
 trary to Scripture. 
 
 - The law of God has no curse if future pun- 
 ishment be in all cases disciplinary. 
 
 The sentence passed upon the impenitent in- 
 discriminately, forbids the idea of discipline in 
 future punishment. 
 
 It is inconceivable that fallen angels and " the 
 spirits in prison," who were on earth "in the 
 days of Noah," should not long ago have re- 
 pented of their sins, if repentance were the ob- 
 ject sought by their punishment. 
 
 If death, and the scenes within the veil pre- 
 vious to the judgment-day, do not effect the 
 repentance in the wicked, there is no ground to 
 think that their banishment from Christ with the 
 fallen angels, at the last day, is intended for 
 their reformation, or would effect it. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 105 
 
 "Forever" and "everlasting" always denote 
 the whole^ as to duration, of that with which 
 they stand connected. 
 
 If a finite being cannot justly be punished 
 forever, then, if the whole universe should sin 
 forever, it could not be punished forever, because 
 the whole intelligent universe also is finite. 
 
 The duration of future punishment is ex- 
 pressed in the New Testament by the terms em- 
 ployed to denote absolute eternity in cases which 
 are never questioned. 
 
 The provision made in the incarnation, suf- 
 ferings, and death of the Son of God for pardon 
 and salvation, and the abundant calls to repent- 
 ance, and offers of eternal life, through Christ, 
 to all, will make the final impenitence of sinners 
 inexcusable, and their misery will be of their 
 own procuring. 
 
 I may be allowed, in closing, to quote the 
 words of the apostle Paul, which those who 
 preach and are set for the defence of the gospel, 
 must not hesitate to adopt : " For we are unto 
 God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are 
 saved and in them that perish : To the one we 
 
106 SCKIPTUEAL ARGUMENT FOE 
 
 are the savor of death unto death, and to the 
 other, the savor of life unto life. And who is 
 sufficient for these things?"* 
 
 Pursuing my ordinary labors, a Universalist 
 and Unitarian clergyman of this city invited me 
 to repeat, in his pulpit, a sermon on this subject, 
 to which he had listened in my church. As I 
 profess not to be ashamed of the Gospel of 
 Christ, which, in my view, involves the doctrine 
 of endless punishment, I complied with his re- 
 quest. This has led to the present communica- 
 tion. Had mere controversy been my object, I 
 would hot have sought to discuss the scriptural 
 view of this subject, with such admissions before 
 me as those of Rev. T. S. King and Rev. Theo- 
 dore Parker. When I read them, I thought that 
 one whose only object was to get the advantage 
 of an opponent, might he justified in feeling 
 with regard to the doctrine of Restoration, as 
 Joab did when he found Absalom in the tree, 
 and he blew a trumpet, and all the people re- 
 turned from the battle. Such men as Mr. King 
 and Mr. Parker, seeing the doctrine of endless 
 punishment in the literal speech of the Bible, as* 
 
 * 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 107 
 
 interpreted by us, and rejecting its inspiration, 
 partly because they find it there, relieves us 
 greatly from the need of holding controversies 
 on this subject. Controversy has not been my 
 motive. I have sought to persuade my reader 
 to flee with me for refuge to lay hold upon the 
 hope set before us. 
 
 In the foregoing discussion, I am not aware 
 that there is anything which intentionally re- 
 flects upon the understanding or motives of 
 others. It has cost no effort to abstain from 
 being, in any way, derisory, or satirical, or con- 
 temptuous. Conscious only of kindness and 
 good- will to all, and grateful for this opportunity 
 to state and defend important principles,-I am. 
 The reader's friend and servant, 
 
 N. Adams. 
 
REASONABLENESS 
 
 OF 
 
 FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 
 
 109 
 
COEEESPONDENCE. 
 
 12 Burroughs Place. 
 Rev. Dr. Adams. 
 
 Dear Sir : It was my privilege to be one of your audi- 
 tors last Sunday evening, when you delivered the discourse, 
 listened to with great interest by a large assembly, on the 
 "Reasonableness of Eternal Punishment." 
 
 I take the liberty to address you, with the request that 
 you will repeat the discourse in the Hollis Street Church 
 next Sunday evening. Members of the committee of my 
 society, and many others of the parishioners^ express to 
 me the hope that you may find it consistent with your en- 
 gagements and in accordance with your sense of duty to 
 accept this invitation. Our church is very spacious ; on such 
 an occasion I doubt not that it would be crowded with an 
 audience of *' Liberal Christians." I am sure that they would 
 eagerly embrace an opportunity to hear so able an advocate 
 of " Orthodoxy " upon a theme so important as the eternal 
 punishment, by the Infinite Father, of all who fail to comply 
 with the terms of grace which He has established for His 
 children during tliis brief life. 
 
 Let me assure you that, if you accept this ofier, the pulpit 
 shall be entirely at your disposal, precisely as if it were your 
 own. And let me say that I expect no such offer in return. 
 If you consent, I shall simply urge my people to attend your 
 service, and listen, as I shall listen a second time, with the 
 respect your abilities deserve, and with the earnestness which 
 
 111 
 
112 COERESPONDENCE. 
 
 the momentous question, you discuss — about which we differ 
 so widely — should inspire in us all. 
 
 In the hope of an early reply, I am respectfully yours, 
 
 T. S. KING. 
 
 Rev. T. S. King. 4 Boylston Place. 
 
 My Dear Sir : Your note of the 21st inst. reached me this 
 morning, and I need not say that it has greatly surprised 
 and deeply interested me. The sermon was written in 1852, 
 and was then preached to my own people on a Sabbath morn- 
 ing, in the ordinary course of ministerial labor. The subject 
 has weighed much on my own mind during the present re- 
 ligious interest, and this alone induced me to present it at 
 ray lecture last Sabbath evening. That it did not strike 
 you and others as an unfeeling exhibition of mere theological 
 opinion upon an infinitely important and very trying subject, 
 is truly gratifying to me. 
 
 Your invitation to repeat the sermon in your church, next 
 Sabbath evening, is conveyed in such terms that I feel im- 
 pelled to accept it, and I will therefore comply with your 
 request. It is due to you as well as to myself to say, that 
 parts of the discourse, as originally written, were omitted last 
 Sabbath evening, and their place was supplied from brief 
 notes, and by a few extemporaneous remarks. All this I will 
 endeavor to repeat ; and I infer from the tenor of your note 
 that should I further explain and re-enforce some of my state- 
 ments, it will but accord with your wishes. I ought, more- 
 over, to add that none but myself can properly be held re- 
 sponsible for my sentiments and expressions on this subject, 
 however much I may suppose my views to agree with theirs. 
 
 With sincere regard, I am, dear sir, very truly yours, 
 
 N. ADAMS. 
 
REASONABLENESS 
 
 OF 
 
 FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 
 
 For the wages of sin is death. — Rom. vi. 23. 
 
 LET US endeavor to think how- it would be 
 with us, should it come to pass, as the fool 
 in his heart wishes it to be, that there is no 
 God; that God is dethroned. Some disaster 
 has happened in the universe, and rival spirits, 
 we will suppose, have triumphed. Malignity 
 has supplanted benevolence ; wickedness is en- 
 throned over virtue ; chance does not rule, but 
 the government of all worlds is in the hands 
 of the enemies of God. Prayer now is useless ; 
 public worship may as well cease. Bibles are 
 like old books of history, and nothing more, for 
 the promises of the Bible are now like irre- 
 8 113 
 
114 REASONABLENESS OF 
 
 deemable bills. Repentance and faith are use- 
 less. The deity to whom this world has fallen 
 by lot is Mammon, or Moloch ; or it may be that 
 Satan himself, out of spite for all which he has 
 suffered here, takes it under his charge. Every- 
 thing now is perverted ; darkness is put for 
 light, evil for good, bitter for sweet. The 
 strongest must rule; to get all he can, by all 
 means, is the governing principle of every man; 
 no rights are respected ; Virtue is driven out of 
 the world; her defences and her great reward 
 have perished. Everywhere we are assailed 
 with the sight of these words, and with this cry : 
 No God ! No God ! Whether the devils have 
 power to control the elements and rule the 
 heavenly bodies, or whether all things will rush 
 to ruin, is a fearful question, which every day 
 and hour appalls the stoutest heart. For, 
 instead of One, Almighty, Supreme Being, who 
 can say, as formerly, ''I am God, and there is 
 none else," and instead of that unity of purpose, 
 and independent will, and unrivalled might, 
 which governed the universe safely and happily, 
 a band of devils, we suppose, is at the head of 
 affairs, the superior demon holding his sway by 
 
• FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 115 
 
 force over the rest, or by their assent; but no 
 unity of purpose, or permanence, can be ex- 
 pected in things controlled by hateful and hating 
 creatures. We look up to the heavens ; they no 
 longer " declare the glory of God," but telegraph 
 his discomfiture. As one says: 
 
 *'What were the universe without a God? 
 A mob of worlds, careering round the sky." 
 
 Law everywhere would be likely to be mob law. 
 If we could, by armies and any sacrifice of 
 treasure and blood, reinstate Jehovah in his 
 throne, our own self-interest, and sense of jus- 
 tice, and oiitraged feelings, would impel us to 
 any and every effort to drive Satan and his hosts 
 from heaven, and shut them up in hell as long as 
 they should continue rebellious ; and the return 
 of the day when God Almighty should resume 
 his peaceful reign in the armies of heaven, and 
 among the inliabitants of the earth, would be 
 a jubilee. But, alas ! if the almighty arm, so 
 called, could not prevail against his enemies, 
 how could mortals help him? Let it once be 
 that usurpers have the throne of God, and anni- 
 hilation would be coveted by every one of us 
 
116 EEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 more eagerly than any despairing suicide ever 
 yet longed to prove or to find it true. 
 
 Every one of us has done his part to bring 
 about this state of things. Should the natural 
 feelings and conduct of each of us be extended 
 indefinitely, all this would virtually happen. 
 There might be more refinement in wickedness 
 in some places than in others, to suit the tastes 
 and habits of different people ; but Greece and 
 Rome, the models of ancient cultivation and 
 refinement, are, with "the whole world lying in 
 wickedness," described by an unerring pen in 
 the first chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 
 and in terms which make every reader blush 
 with shame at human nature. Its degeneracy 
 and corruption, from Cain to the days of the 
 Canaanites, and ever since, when unrestrained 
 by the grace of God, have been such that nation 
 after nation made it necessary for God to wipe 
 them out of existence, " as a man wipeth a dish, 
 wiping it and turning it upside down."* Volney 
 surveys the " ruins of empires," and mourns, 
 saying, " To what purpose is this waste ? " and 
 he impeaches the wisdom of his God. He will 
 
 * 2 Kings xxi. 13. 
 
FUTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 117 
 
 not consider that sin is the procuring cause of 
 national, as it is of individual ruin, and that God 
 has but fulfilled the threatening, " The nation 
 and kingdom that will not serve thee shall 
 perish ; yea, those nations shall be utterly- 
 wasted."* "Thou shalt dash them in pieces 
 like a potter's vessel.'' f 
 
 Sin is the antagonist of God. If sin prevails, 
 there is " no God." For wherever, even upon a 
 small scale, sin prevails, God is banished. Let 
 its power be supreme, and practically there is no 
 God. 
 
 Where is sin ? Who ever saw it ? Where is 
 its hg.bitation? Sin exists nowhere but in free, 
 intelligent creatures. There i^ no sin separate 
 from a sinner. Whoever, therefore, is a sinner, 
 is sin impersonated. In the greatest measure, 
 we suppose, sin exists in Satan ; then in his com- 
 panions ; then in lost men ; then in living men. 
 '' The carnal mind is enmity against God." If 
 we say. The Asiatic cholera is in Boston, we 
 mean that there are those here who have the 
 cholera. There is no sin but in the hearts of 
 fallen spirits and men. 
 
 * Is. Ix. 12. t Ps. ii. 9. 
 
118 KEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 There is not oi>e of us who, when placed in 
 circumstances where God and his requirements 
 or prohibitions came in conflict with our wishes, 
 has not fought against God. This is no more 
 than the powers of hell would do on a larger 
 scale, if they had the opportunity. 
 
 The difference is this : There is a plague, we 
 will say, in London, -which is cutting down a 
 thousand in a day. Men think and speak of it 
 as an awful scourge. But you are at Bath, or 
 Carlisle, sick with the plague, alone, and you are 
 ready to die. There is no difference between 
 your plague and the plague in London. All the 
 symptoms which the thousand victims in London 
 have, you exhibit ; but you are not in a com- 
 munity where the disease is triumphant. But it 
 is killing you ; it does no more in London, only 
 that it has gained the upper hand, and puts the 
 inhabitants, to flight. 
 
 Li like manner, sin, disobedience to God, and 
 the dislike of him from which it springs, is the 
 same in substance everywhere. If we dislike 
 God, his attributes, his requirements, his pro- 
 hibitions, and if infinite mischief is not the 
 consequence, it is because our influence is 
 
FUTUBE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 119 
 
 hemmed in and overruled ; just as we might 
 have a contagious disorder, and yet such pre- 
 ventives be employed as would keep it from 
 doing much harm. 
 
 Though sin has not extended in the universe 
 so far as to dethrone God, we have most perfect 
 illustrations of its awful power. 
 
 There was a time when all the sin which was 
 in the world was enclosed in one sinful wish in 
 the breast of one woman. She had permission 
 to eat of every tree but one, and that one God 
 prohibited, saying, "•' In the day that thou eatest 
 thereof, thou shalt surely die." A transient 
 thought, immediately repressed or disapproved, 
 would not have been sin ; for, as Milton says, 
 
 " Evil into the mind of God or man 
 May come and go, so unapproved, and leave 
 No spot or blame behind ; " * 
 
 but she indulged that wish, and hankered after 
 that fruit ; and in that sinful wish all the sin of 
 earth once lay. That wish became an act ; and 
 now let him who would write the sins and woes 
 of earth first count for us the snow-flakes of five 
 
 * Paradise Lost, B. V. 1. 117. 
 
120 REASONABLENESS OF 
 
 thousand winters, and tell us the number of 
 drops in all the rivers and oceans. " By one 
 man's disobedience many were made sinners ; " 
 and their history is the history of wars, lust, in- 
 temperance, violence. O sin ! what hast thou 
 done ? What canst thou not do ? 
 
 There is^another illustration still more afTect- 
 ing. We see a company of evil spirits whom 
 Christ is casting out of two men. They hold a 
 conversation with the Saviour. If they are 
 mere diseases, and not intelligent creatures ca- 
 pable of reasoning, but are only personified mal- 
 adies, who are making a truce with Christ, and 
 if he countenances the delusion that this scene 
 is not even so real a thing as a masquerade, but 
 a fiction throughout, while questions are put and 
 answers given, requests made and permission 
 granted, there is an end to all confidence in lan- 
 guage, and indeed the reality of everything may 
 be questioned. " And they besought him that 
 he would not command them to go out into the 
 deep."* They did not mean the sea, for thither 
 they soon went of their own choice. The same 
 word, in Rev. xx. 3, is translated '^ bottomless 
 
 ♦ Luke viii. 31. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 121 
 
 pit." They are called '' evil spirits." But if 
 they were intelligent creatures, they were fallen 
 creatures; for we suppose that God would not 
 create a demon; and allowing even that they 
 were the souls of lost men, or an order of beings 
 who came into existence, as we did, with a fallen 
 nature, probation must have been allotted to 
 them — a chance to be saved ; for we shall agree 
 that no infant, nor any other being, can be lost 
 merely for having a fallen nature. These fallen 
 spirits, then, were once sui:rounded by virtuous 
 influences ; they may have been angels ; and if 
 they were, nay, even if they sang together with 
 other morning stars, and shouted for joy with all 
 the sons of God, at the birth of the world, they 
 fell no further, comparatively, than the sons or 
 daughters of men have fallen here, from homes 
 of purity and circles of refinement, from pulpits 
 and the table of Christ. "So the devils be- 
 sought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us 
 to go away into the herd of swine." * O sin, 
 what hast thou done? This whole legion of 
 devils, moreover, had taken possession of two 
 poor creatures, and made them maniacs " exceed- 
 
 * Matt. viii. 31. 
 
122 EEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 ing fierce." Why should more than one malig- 
 nant spirit wish to possess one human body? 
 What mysteries there are in sin, and " depths of 
 Satan"! 
 
 The difference between sin as it existed in 
 these demons and as it exists in our breasts, is 
 the same as between the loathsome victim of the 
 plague, and the man who is just taken sick with 
 it. There was a time when angels in heaven, 
 who, the Bible tells us, were " cast down to 
 hell, and delivered into chains of darkness, to be 
 reserved unto judgment," * were but just in- 
 fected with this malady of sin. There was a 
 time when Eve was but just attacked with it. 
 We are in the early stage of the disorder ; but 
 we have it, and if no remedy be applied, time 
 only is wanted to make us desperate. If placed 
 in circumstances where we could communicate 
 the infection to unfallen creatures, like Eve to 
 Adam, and thus to a race, God only can measure 
 the consequences. Many a human spirit, if not 
 redeemed from its sins, the child now sleeping 
 in its cradle, is capable, in the progress of its 
 being, of going forth to tempt and ruin some 
 
 * 2 Peter ii. 4. 
 
FUTURE, :ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 123 
 
 fair world, and to become the " prince of the 
 power of the air " to that fallen province of 
 God's empire, and to rival the arch apostate 
 angel in his direful history. 
 
 Is this tremendous thing in us — this antago- 
 nism to God ? this enemy to the universe ? If 
 so, what is it ? 
 
 " Sin is any want of conformity unto, or trans- 
 gression of, the law of God." * The sum of all 
 which God requires of man, and prohibits, is 
 comprehended in the ten commandments, every 
 one of which, in thought, word, or deed, we 
 have broken. The Saviour gives us a still more 
 simple summary of our duty: " Thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God Avith all thy heart, and with 
 all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all 
 thy strength; " and ''Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
 bor as thyself." f We have failed to do this; we 
 love and serve the creature more than the Cre- 
 ator. Do we avoid that which God disapproves ? 
 Do we study to do that which he loves ? If we 
 have a family, do we call them together morning 
 and night, and read to them out of God's word, 
 
 * Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism, 14. 
 t Mark xii. 30, 31. 
 
124 REASONABLENESS OF 
 
 and before them bow the knee to God ? Is it 
 natural to do this ? If not, do we give evidence 
 that we love God? His blessings we highly- 
 prize ; his natural attributes we are ready to 
 adore ; but God, with the moral attributes which 
 the Bible ascribes to him, we do not I8ve. On 
 the contrary, we have feelings and thoughts, and 
 we do things, which are " enmity against God," * 
 and, carried out into other situations, and exas- 
 perated by opposition to our wills, and their in- 
 fluence being sufficiently extended, they would 
 supplant his throne. 
 
 If we were in the place of. God, we may im- 
 agine how we would regard sin. He compre- 
 hends the interests of all intelligent beings, and 
 sees that sin is fatal to his government over 
 them, so that, wherever sin reigns, there, and in 
 that proportion, there is no God. It would be 
 better that the universe should perish than that 
 harm should come to the infinite God; but sin 
 would not only destroy the universe ; for, if it 
 could prevail, it would dethrone God. Let us 
 place ourselves where we could see and feel 
 what sin would do if it were aimed against us, 
 
 ♦ Bom. viii. 7. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 125 
 
 and our authority, and the happiness of a uni- 
 verse for whose welfare we were responsible. 
 How would we legislate about that which would 
 inevitably ruin other worlds and races, as it has 
 ours ? What would we do to prevent it, and to 
 reform and save the rebellious ? Should we do 
 anything? We will take it for granted that we 
 would. 
 
 But human wisdom and earthly love could not 
 do more than God has done to save sinners. In 
 the threefold distinction of the divine nature, we 
 hold there is that which is called " the Word," 
 which •' was in the beginning with God," and 
 which " was God." * Then, seemingly guarding 
 against the Sabellian theory of " manifestation," 
 it is said again, " The same was in the beginning 
 with God ;" not therefore God filling a human 
 body and soul with influence, and so makinga 
 mere demonstration of divinity, but it was the 
 Word, who was not only God, but ("great is 
 the mystery") "with God," indicating both union 
 and distinctness. He became flesh, and dwelt 
 among us. 
 
 His great object was to take the sinner's place 
 
 * John i. 1. 
 
126 EEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 as a sacrifice for sins. He did not interpose 
 between a wrathful being and his victims. For 
 the sake, perhaps, of keeping up in the human 
 mind the idea of Deity unmixed with our nature, 
 the Father is familiarly called " God,'' and yet 
 as often " God the Father," which word '^Father" 
 would be, in numerous instances, an unwarrant- 
 able pleonasm, if " our heavenly Father," and 
 not a person in the Trinity, were intended. 
 " The Word," by union with human nature, it is 
 supposed, was constituted " Son," and so acted 
 in a subordinate capacity; and so we are told, 
 without fiulher explanation of the mystery in 
 the. Godhead, that " God so loved the world that 
 he gave his only-begotten Son, that wdiosoever 
 believe th in him should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life." That he died, we know ; 
 that he did not die for his own sins, we know ; * 
 that "in due time Christ died for the ungodly," 
 we know.f " He was wounded for our trans- 
 gressions, he w^as bruised for our iniquities; 
 the chastisement of our peace was upon him, 
 and with his stripes we are healed." J It is 
 said of him, " Whom God hath set forth to be a 
 
 * Dan. ix. 26. f Rom. v. 6. J Is. liii. 5. 
 
FUTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 127 
 
 propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare 
 his righteousness for the remission of sins that 
 are past, through the forbearance of God ; to de- 
 clare, I say, at this time, his righteousness, that 
 he might be just, and the justifier of him that 
 believeth in Jesus." * The terms of salvation 
 for every penitent sinner are, " Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." f 
 " He that believeth on him is not condemned." 
 " Being now justified by his blood, we shall be 
 saved from wrath through him." :{: " If any man 
 sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus 
 Christ the righteous ; and he is the propitiation 
 for our sins, and not for ours- only, but also for 
 the sins of the whole world." § All are invited 
 to accept pardon and salvation by pleading the 
 sufferings and death of this Redeemer ; and it is 
 then said, " There is therefore now no condem- 
 nation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who 
 walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." || 
 
 To enforce these offers of mercy, and to sup- 
 ply all needful help in being saved, there is One, 
 equal in his nature with the Father and the 
 
 * Rom. iii. 25. f Acts xvi. 31. :j: Rom. v. 9. 
 
 § 1 John ii. 1, 2. || Rom. viii. 1. 
 
128 BEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 Son, to whom is committed the work of carrying 
 redemption into effect in the hearts of men. 
 The Holy Ghost, by the plan of salvation, suc- 
 ceeds Christ, and strives with men.* The Bible 
 is put into their hands ; an order of men is ap- 
 poin^d for the special purpose of being *' ambas- 
 sadors for Christ," " as though God did be- 
 seech them,'^ and they pray them ''in Christ's 
 stead, be ye reconciled to God." * One day 
 in seven is set apart by divine authority for 
 special attention to this subject. A most touch- 
 ing ordinance is divinely appointed, which every 
 month or two appeals to their senses, and most 
 powerfully to their hearts. It is no less than a 
 simple representation, by two appropriate sym- 
 bols, of the body and blood of the Redeemer 
 pleading with man, " This do in remembrance of 
 me." t Frequently one and another is converted 
 from his sins, and accepts this offered mercy ; 
 others confess the reality and beauty of the 
 change, but they continue in their own chosen 
 ways. Members of their families experience 
 this change, and God thus draws them " by the 
 cords of a man, with bands of love ;" " but," 
 
 * 2 Cor. V. 20. t I^uke xxii. 19. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 129 
 
 he is compelled to add, " they knew not that I 
 healed them." * And now the angel of death 
 comes into their dwellings ; all the softening in- 
 fluences of sickness, and the benign influences 
 of sorrow, persuade them to.be reconciled to 
 God, and all in vain. From lips soon to close in 
 death, appeals are made to them with all the love 
 of a wife, or child, or pastor ; or, it may be, a 
 partner in business sends word from his dying 
 pillow, and asks them, "What shall it profit a 
 man if he gain the whole world, and lose his 
 own soul? Or what shall a man give in ex- 
 change for his soul ? " f 
 
 God in his word has told them that he will 
 confine his efforts for their salvation within the 
 limits of their natural life, and with urgent love 
 he says, " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, 
 do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor 
 device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave 
 whither thou goest." J 
 
 Among the closing words of the Bible these 
 accents fall on their ears like the last notes of a 
 bell that calls to the house of prayer : " He that 
 is unjust let him be unjust still, and he that is 
 
 * Hosea xi. 4, 3. f Matt. xvi. 26. J Eccl. ix. 10. 
 
 9 
 
130 REASONABLENESS OF 
 
 filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is right- 
 eous let him be righteous still, and he that is 
 holy let him be holy still." * The vast majority 
 of all who receive the Bible as the word of God 
 unite and testify " how that Christ died for our 
 sins, according to the Scriptures ; " f that there 
 is pardon through his blood ; that he " delivered 
 us from the wrath to come ; " J and that no pro- 
 bation after death is intimated in the Bible. 
 
 But notwithstanding all this, men refuse to 
 repent of their sins, and they persist in their re- 
 pugnance to God. They go into the next world 
 from amidst these influences of mercy, in total 
 disregard of all which has been done to save 
 them. 
 
 The question is, What is it reasonable for 
 them to expect? Only two things can take 
 place : Further measures will be used to reclaim 
 them, or. They must be forever given up to sin 
 and its consequences. 
 
 It is not for man to say what shall now take 
 place. Will he insist that the sinner shall have 
 no further trial ? He must not prescribe limits 
 to the mercy of God. " For my thoughts are 
 
 ♦ Rev. xxii. 11. f 1 Cor. xv. 3. t 1 Thess. i. 10. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 131 
 
 not your thoughts, neither are your ways my 
 ways, saith the Lord." * Will man insist that 
 the sinner ought to have another period of pro- 
 bation? He is equally at fault if he dictates to 
 the justice of God. Revelation is the only 
 source of knowledge upon this subject. Those 
 of our race who have received the word of God 
 implicitly, and have interpreted that book, as 
 they do all writings, according to its most ob- 
 vious import, have, with inconsiderable excep- 
 tions, believed that eternal punishment is re- 
 vealed. But it is with the reasonableness of the 
 doctrine that we are now concerned. There is 
 not a doctrine of revelation — God forbid ! — 
 which is against reason. It may be above reason 
 in many things, but it never contradicts either the 
 known and established principles of the human 
 conscience and understanding, nor the palpable 
 truths of human experience and observation. 
 Now, upon this ground Vv^e plant ourselves, and 
 say, that, so fap as we can judge, endless future 
 punishment is reasonable. He who disbelieves 
 the evangelical system cannot prove the doctrine 
 to be reasonable. Finding future eternal pun- 
 
 * Is. iv. 8. 
 
132 REASONABLENESS OF 
 
 ishment disclosed in the Bible, it commends 
 itself to our understanding and conscience as a 
 reasonable truth. 
 
 One objection to it is this. It is said, — 
 
 ^''Eternal punishment is too long as a penalty 
 for the sins of a short life.''' 
 
 None but God can judge here. The important 
 question is, Was the transgressor duly notified ? 
 He is in a foreign land, and is made fully ac- 
 quainted with a law and its penalty, which he 
 thinks is exceedingly severe. The government, 
 however, have special reasons for the enactment ; 
 but he prefers the risk of the penalty to the 
 loss of a certain benefit, and is without excuse, 
 for he transgressed with his eyes open. 
 
 Is it just for one to lose so much in conse- 
 quence of so brief a period of transgression? 
 This depends on the information possessed be- 
 forehand. A passenger by the steamer does not 
 expect that, if notice of the hour of departure 
 is communicated to him, the bell will toll a 
 whole day, or even an hour for his dilatori- 
 ness. He may by losing the voyage, change the 
 prospect of life, and one half minute can decide 
 whether it shall be so. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 133 
 
 Forgery, arson, manslaughter, conceived and 
 executed in the briefest space of time, have no 
 valid defence in the shortness of the time oc- 
 cupied by the deed. A day is not too short in 
 which to commit a crime which will be punished 
 by imprisonment for life. We take away a 
 man's whole life, and he a young man, for an 
 act committed within one hour. 
 
 If a note has matured, bankruptcy is not ar- 
 rested because the promisor received only one 
 notice. 
 
 We probably never heard it objected to eter- 
 nal salvation^ that it is too long to be the con- 
 sequence and reward of this brief life. That 
 heaven is promised to the righteous, and that 
 it will be without end, no one doubts. But 
 what if we should say, as we might with as good 
 reason as in objecting to endless punishment, 
 ''Life is too short in which to merit heaven ; we 
 ought to be subjected after death to a longer 
 probation, be placed in new circumstances of 
 trial for a period that should bear some propor- 
 tion to the greatness of the reward"? What 
 period of trial would be thought an equivalent 
 for measureless felicity, it would be hard indeed 
 
134 EEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 to say ; and we are therefore led to the principle 
 that the length of time in which good or evil 
 actions take place is no proper measure of their 
 desert. We act upon this principle in every- 
 thing. 
 
 Much use is made of this objection to endless 
 punishment as urged by the late Rev. John 
 Foster, an evangelical Baptist, of England. He 
 writes a letter to a young ministerial friend who 
 had asked his views on the subject of endless 
 punishment. Mr. Foster says that he has made 
 much less research into this subject than his 
 young friend had probably done, and that he 
 had been " too content, perhaps, to let an 
 opinion or impression admitted in early life dis- 
 pense with protracted inquiry and various read- 
 ing." He then says: ''The general, not very 
 far short of universal, judgment of divines in 
 affirmation of the doctrine of eternal punish- 
 ment, must be acknowledged a weighty consid- 
 eration. It is a fair question, Is it likely that so 
 many thousands of able, learned, benevolent, 
 and pious men should all have been in error? 
 And the language of Scripture is formidably 
 strong ; so strong that it must be an argument 
 
FXJTUBE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 135 
 
 of extreme cogency that would authorize a 
 limited interpretation." 
 
 But his answer to all this is, in his own 
 words, — "the stupendous idea of eternity,'* — 
 upon which he proceeds to dwell with great 
 power. 
 
 To this, one reply may be, that the great and 
 good men of all evangelical denominations, as 
 capable as Mr. Foster of appreciating the awful 
 idea of eternity, "have generally," and, as he 
 himself says, " not very far short of universally," 
 received this doctrine. Almost every believer 
 in it has, at some time, had some relation or 
 friend whose condition at death excited fearful 
 thoughts, and clothed the grave with more 
 than midnight darkness. The very strongest 
 temptations have thus been presented to be- 
 lievers in the doctrine to find or create insuper- 
 able objections to it ; yet the vast majority of 
 Christian believers who have lost friends con- 
 cerning whose condition they entertain but little 
 hope, remain persuaded that the doctrine is 
 revealed. Mr. Foster had no knowledge or 
 penetration which they did not possess ; he also 
 "was formed out of the clay;" he could sub- 
 
 ^ Of THB^> 
 
 [USI7BRSIT71 
 
136 BEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 stantiate no claim to have his feelings of repug- 
 nance regarded as paramount to the feelings of 
 submission and faith with which his Christian 
 brethren, in the hour of their sorrow, have de- 
 liberately declared their belief in this doctrine. 
 But we are furnished with another reply, 
 in a letter of Mr. Foster himself to Rev. Dr. 
 Harris, on another subject and at a different 
 time, in which he describes this world as he 
 thinks it would strike the inhabitants of another 
 planet. These few words will show the tenor 
 of his remarks : '' To me it appears a most mys- 
 teriously awful economy, overspread by a lurid 
 shade. I pray for the piety to maintain a 
 humble submission to the wise and righteous 
 Disposer of all existence. But to see a nature, 
 created in purity, ruined at the very origin, 
 &c., the grand remedial visitation^ Christianity, 
 laboring in a difficult progress — soon perverted 
 — at the present hour known and even nomi- 
 nally acknowledged by very greatly thei minority 
 of the race — its progress distanced by the in- 
 crease of the population — thousands every day 
 passing out of the world in no state of fitness for 
 a pure and happy state elsewhere, — O, it is a 
 
FUTUEE, ENDLESS. PUNISHMENT. 137 
 
 most confounding and appalling contemplation." 
 So he describes this world in very much the 
 same way in which he has depicted future end- 
 less retributions ; and we may say that had he 
 been told of such a world as ours, under the 
 government of a good God, he would have had 
 misgivings and objections not unlike those which 
 he has expressed on the subject of future pun- 
 ishment. He excites distrust and fear in our 
 minds with regard to the government of the 
 world. We should not feel happy in the thought 
 that God reigns, nor could we see how the mul- 
 titude of the isles should be glad thereof, should 
 we live under the influence of such views as 
 those of this truly able and excellent man. 
 
 It is objected again that " a mere mortal 
 cannot^ hy any sins which he can commit^ merit 
 endless punishment^ ^ 
 
 Whether he actually does incur it, we say 
 again, must be ascertained from revelation. In 
 reply to this objection, we are to remember that 
 it is not one single transgression which God is 
 called upon to punish — a sudden, unpremedi- 
 tated, or even one deliberate act, for which act 
 the sinner is sorry ; but it is continued disobe- 
 
138 EEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 dience, in opposition to all the methods of divine 
 love and wisdom employed to turn us from our 
 sins. Conscience has faithfully done her work 
 until she was seared ; warnings and threatenings 
 have exhausted their strength ; the cross of 
 Christ and the influences of the Holy Spirit 
 have proved of no avail. 
 
 There maybe little sins against some of the 
 gods of heathenism, but there can be no little 
 sin against Jehovah. But how is man '' little " ? 
 He has competent knowledge of the character 
 of God; he is only ^'a little lower than the 
 angels,"* and has dominion over all the works 
 of God. He can comprehend the starry heav- 
 ens; he is godlike in liis original nature, for ''in 
 the imai^e of God made he him." The sublime 
 truths which God has revealed to man show 
 what estimate God has of man's capacity and 
 responsibility. A finite creature can insult the 
 majesty of heaven as deliberately and intelli- 
 gently as the archangel ; he can annihilate the 
 authority of God in his own soul, and wherever 
 he has influence ; if all finite creatures should do 
 this, — and there are no creatures who are not 
 
 * Psalm viii. *' 
 
FUTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 139 
 
 finite, — there would be no moral universe, no 
 divine government. 
 
 It is said, ^'It is a libel on the character of Gfod 
 to believe that he can bear to punish his children 
 forever*''^ 
 
 Had we known beforehand that God was to 
 create offspring whom he would teach to call 
 him by the endearing name of Father, and 
 then should see four hundred of these his chil- 
 dren in such a scene of indescribable agony 
 and destruction as was recently witnessed on 
 
 board the , we should say the analogy 
 
 between divine and human parentage surely 
 is imperfect. God is something besides a 
 "Father; "he is King and Judge. Men never 
 discipline their children by drowning them, and 
 burning them, and tearing them in pieces. The 
 destruction of the Canaanites for their iniquity is 
 so terrible, that, some, for that reason, reject the 
 Old Testament, which approves it. God's judg- 
 ments are a great deep. True, '' he made birds 
 and flowers ; " all the exquisite sensibilities of 
 the human system are his gift ; the natural and 
 moral world are, by his love and skill, most 
 
140 REASONABLENESS OF 
 
 beautifully adapted to each other ; and will he 
 hide his face forever from a single child ? No, 
 not unless that child persists to hide his face and 
 withhold his heart from God. "For he will not 
 lay on man more than is right, that he should 
 enter into judgment with God." * He is seeking 
 continually to make his children love him. The 
 Sabbath day perpetually reminds every one of 
 them of God. Church spires everywhere point 
 to heaven. Church-going bells call men to 
 prayer, and to hear the gospel. Friends, by 
 their words and example, persuade men to love 
 and serve God. How many people are there, 
 probably, in this city, for example, who have not 
 had, and do not have, not only opportunit}^ but 
 persuasion of some kind, within and without, to 
 fear God ? There are few, if any, who see the 
 lightning or hear the thunder, without having the 
 thought of their accountableness flash through 
 their minds. If but a hearse appears in the 
 streets, all who see it are left without excuse 
 should they die in their sins. ''By the things 
 which are made " God is so '' clearly seen," that 
 even idolaters are " without excuse ; " much 
 
 * Job xxxiv. 23. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 141 
 
 more they who, to say no more, live where the 
 Christian Sabbath, like the quiet moon, at short 
 and regular intervals, arrests and turns the 
 mighty tide of human affairs, so that even the 
 prisoner in his cell feels it lifting and bearing 
 him heavenward, and the Sabbath-breaker him- 
 self, by the very increase of his gains on that 
 day, or by the opportunity for sloth, or by the 
 feeling which leads him to hasten or delay his 
 drive, to avoid the church-going people, has 
 conviction of sin and admonition of duty suflS- 
 cient to bar excuses and to make him speech- 
 less in the day when God rises up to judg- 
 ment. 
 
 But at last the day of life is over — the period 
 within which God told us that his efforts for our 
 conversion would be limited, and after which, 
 he warned us, would be the judgment, and end- 
 less retribution. Some said that this was im- 
 possible in the nature of things. They were 
 told that the Bible literally declared it. They 
 said that it was figurative, or a parable. They 
 were reminded of the words of Jesus, the final 
 Judge, relating the very words of the last sen- 
 tence upon the wicked. They said that the God 
 
142 EEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 who made spring, and birds, and flowers, and 
 human affections, and who is himself a Father, 
 could not see men suffer without end. But the 
 love of God, they are told, is not seen in spring, 
 and birds, and flowers, and human happiness, so 
 much as in this, that " God so loved the world 
 that he gave his only-begotten Son, that who- 
 soever believeth in him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life." ''Herein is love; not 
 that we loved God, but that he loved us, and 
 sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." * 
 But all this proves of no avail ; they go to " the 
 judgment-seat of Christ," " every one," to " re- 
 ceive the things done in the body, whether it be 
 good or bad." f 
 
 Shall God now violate the fundamental charac- 
 teristic of their constitution, that is, free agency, 
 and instead of governing them by motives, treat 
 them like moulded clay, which, when it does 
 not suit him, the potter presses together again 
 on the wheel, and makes of it another vessel ? 
 That is not such a government as God chooses 
 to administer, but a government of motives, 
 addressed to free and accountable creatures. 
 
 ♦John iv. 10. t2 Cor. v. 10. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 143 
 
 What shall now be clone with those wEom God 
 has faileii in his efforts to turn and save ? Some 
 reply, " He ought to punish them till they do 
 repent." 
 
 And yet they who say this, many of them, tell 
 us, as one great argument against future endless 
 punishment, that " we have misery enough in 
 this world, without being punished in the next." 
 Therefore, by their own acknowledgment, God 
 has already used dreadful methods of chastise- 
 ment with them ; so great that they say there 
 cannot be any future punishment of sin. Yet 
 these mortal agonies of body and mind, these 
 life-long trials and sorrows, have failed to make 
 them love and serve God. Will it be useful 
 that he should proceed and punish them further ? 
 Can God heap upon them sorrows more bitter 
 than they have felt at the graves of their loved 
 ones, and at their return from those graves to 
 their desolated dwellings ? Are there other strokes 
 of his lightnings better fitted to rive and consume 
 their spirits than those with which they have 
 already been struck ? It is not reasonable. The 
 wrath of God is not " the power of God and the 
 
144 BEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 wisdom of God unto salvation.''* We have a 
 different opinion respecting our Maker from that 
 which leads one to believe that anger, fury, 
 vengeance are the perfection of his governmental 
 influences; as they surely are, if they are more 
 eflicacious than the love which he has manifested 
 in the Son of his love. 
 
 God himself says, " What more could be done 
 to my vineyard that I have not done in it ? " 
 
 We suppose, therefore, — and we think it is 
 reasonable, — that if we do not repent of our 
 sins, and are not willing to accept Christ, and 
 all the efforts of mercy to save us, God will 
 suffer us to sin against him forever. He will 
 not hinder us from having our own chosen way. 
 Shall we rebel against this? Will we say, 
 " This is cruel ; it is tyrannical, unworthy of 
 God, our heavenly Father, to let us have our 
 own choice? That choice, we know, is not 
 good ; but he ought to make us good. What ! 
 suffer us to sin against him forever ! " We chose 
 to sin against him as long as we could ; and now 
 it is not unreasonable to give us the desire of our 
 hearts. But God may say. This I will do. I will 
 
 *Rom. i. 16. 1 Cor. i. 18, 24. 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. • 145 
 
 place all of you who sin, in a world by your- 
 selves, from which I and my friends will forever 
 withdraw. Perhaps we secretly say, " If this be 
 all, we do not so much object. This is not hell." 
 But suppose that when God withdraws from us, 
 he takes everything away with him. This pres- 
 ent world cannot be a pattern of a world where 
 all is sin. For this world was made for an upright 
 race, and when they fell, nature itself, in most 
 things, survived the fall. We are not to suppose 
 that the wicked will find themselves in a world 
 of beauty, where they may reconstruct society 
 after the model of the present life, and where 
 they shall enjoy liberty and all the blessings of 
 God's providence. But if God departs from 
 them, it is reasonable to suppose that he will 
 leave no proofs of his love to them what- 
 ever ; for he says, " Woe also unto them when 
 I depart from them." * He would take away, 
 we must suppose, all their domestic relations, 
 friendships, social pleasures, books, every pur- 
 suit of knowledge, music, travels, quiet sleep, 
 morning and evening salutations of loved ones, 
 and change the whole face of nature ; for God 
 
 * Hosea ix. 12. 
 
 10 
 
146 . REASONABLENESS OF 
 
 would not have made so many things just to give 
 pleasure, had he made this world for the perma- 
 nent abode of rebels ; and when we leave this 
 world, if we have shut God out of it b}^ our sins, 
 we cannot expect to find a beautiful world like 
 this prepared for our abode. It is of great use 
 to us to see good people here ; we feel safer to 
 think that there are churches and meetings for 
 prayer, and the Lord's supper, though we de- 
 cline any part in them. These things are for 
 our profit ; and the good and the bad share 
 alike, because this is a state of probation, not of 
 reward. But if we refuse to be won by these 
 things, then it may be as though a certain vision 
 of Jeremiah were, in some sense, fulfilled in our 
 future abode. He describes Jerusalem wasted, 
 and all her people gone into captivity. " I 
 beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form 
 and void ; and the heavens, and they had no 
 light. I beheld the mountains, and lo, they 
 trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I 
 beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the 
 birds of heaven were fled." * When God tells 
 us what heaven is, f he describes the population 
 
 * Jer. iy. 23-25. f Rev. xxii. 14. 
 
FUTUEE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. * 147 
 
 of them that arc "without — dogs, sorcerers," 
 and others ; as though he said, " I will gather 
 sinners together in one place, bring together all 
 the obscene, liars, murderers, pirates, idolaters, 
 into one community with you whose tastes have 
 been cultivated ; for why should I discriminate 
 between those who have together rebelled against 
 me, and rejected my Son ? " If to any, by reason 
 of 'their great accomplishments of mind and man- 
 ners, this will be specially intolerable, they must 
 remember that in those endowments they have 
 special motives and helps towards being saved, 
 and to save others. " Thou in thy lifetime re- 
 ceivedst thy good things ; " but " thou may est be 
 no longer steward." 
 
 Would there be anything unreasonable in 
 this? In view of all which God has done to 
 save the soul, in view of the full notice which 
 we have received that this life is our only period 
 of probation, and the opportunities which we 
 have had to secure eternal life, we cannot accuse 
 the Almighty of injustice if we find that there 
 is no opportunity after death to repent and be- 
 lieve the gospel. Above all, we cannot reasona- 
 bly expect; from what we already know of God, 
 
148 KEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 that having expended upon us all which the gos- 
 pel of his grace includes, he will, upon the failure 
 of that which is " the brightness of his glory," 
 put us into a prison, and wear out our spirits 
 with suffering, and thus reduce us, like refract- 
 ory culprits, to a state of mind in which we can- 
 not refuse to love him. Such is not the Being 
 whom many of us delight to call our heavenly 
 Father. If any worship such a God as this, they 
 have their liberty to do so ; but let them not 
 complain to us of unreasonableness in our views 
 of God. 
 
 It seems reasonable, therefore, to believe, in 
 common with the vast majority in all ages of 
 those who receive the Bible as the word of God, 
 that all who fail to repent and accept the pardon 
 of their sins through Jesus Christ in this life, 
 will at death find those words to be literally true, 
 which seem to be placed among the last words of 
 the Bible by divine arrangement, for the solemn 
 effect which they always have upon the human 
 heart : '' He that is unjust let him be unjust still, 
 and he that is filthy let him be filthy still, and he 
 that is righteous let him be righteous still, and he 
 that is holy let him be holy still. And behold I 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 149 
 
 come quickly; and my reward is with me, to 
 give every man according as his work shall 
 be."* 
 
 As to the heathen, we are not their judge. 
 The first and second chapters of the Epistle to 
 the Romans, however, are very explicit with re- 
 gard to them. ^'The invisible things of God," 
 that is, '' his eternal power and Godhead," " are 
 clearly seen, being understood by the things that 
 are made ; so that they are without excuse." f 
 We are told that " they hold the truth," but •' in 
 unrighteousness;" therefore it is said, "the 
 wrath of God is revealed from heaven against " 
 them. J We sometimes hear a passage, in this 
 connection, quoted thus: "For as many as have 
 sinned without law shall also be judged without 
 law." Not so. It reads, " For as many as have 
 sinned without lav/ shall also j^erish without 
 law." § It is a common remark, but it will bear 
 repetition, " We shall either find the heathen in 
 heaven, if we ourselves are there, or see good 
 and satisfactory reasons for their not being 
 there." 
 
 *Rev. xxii.ll, 12. t^om. i.20. JRom. i. 18. §Rom. ii. 12. 
 
150 EEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 Far too much is made of the question, and 
 great injury has been done by it, whether or not 
 there will be literal fire in the future punishment 
 of the wicked. It is well to discourage such a 
 discussion. We shall have bodies after the resur- 
 rection, for " all that are in their graves shall 
 hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come 
 forth, they that have done good unto the resur- 
 rection of life, and they that have done evil unto 
 the resurrection of damnation." Our bodies will, 
 of course, be of a less spiritual nature than the 
 soul, otherwise two souls will be conjoined in one 
 person. We naturally suppose that the object of 
 the body will be to relate the soul to an exter- 
 nal world ; as glass, in the telescope, though a 
 grosser object than the eye, helps vision, so the 
 body will aid the soul hereafter, as here. This 
 we all admit. Now, in what element, if any, 
 the righteous or the wicked will live hereafter, 
 is of no possible importance to us, seeing that the 
 primary source of happiness or misery with in- 
 telKgent creatures must be mental, and if there 
 be external sources of pleasure or suffering, they 
 are mere circumstances in their condition ; they 
 ire not the substantive occasion of their joy or 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 151 
 
 sorrow. To represent the Most High as inflict 
 ing tortures on the bodies of the wicked strikes 
 lis as unworthy of the conceptions concerning 
 God with which the Bible inspires us. A world 
 of sinners, unmitigated by the presence of a 
 single good being, God himself and all his re- 
 straining influences forever withdrawn, needs no 
 penal fires to increase our sense of its horror ; 
 indeed, they rather detract from our ideas of the 
 most intense misery. If all that is personified 
 by " death," and all the mental, moral, and so- 
 cial elements of what is called " hell," are to be 
 " cast into a lake of fire," every intelligent per- 
 son would suppose that the element containing 
 them would be of little importance. They would 
 be no more to the inhabitants than the element 
 of water could be to Pontius Pilate, whom a 
 great poet represents as in a flood, his hands 
 above it, and he washing them, 
 
 " Which still unwashen strove," 
 
 in memory of his taking water to wash those 
 hands of a certain prisoner's blood. No one 
 w^ould suppose that living in the element of 
 water could be a principal source of misery in 
 
152 EEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 such a punisliment. But we read, " Then shall 
 the King say also unto them on the left hand, 
 Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
 prepared for the devil and his angels." Figu- 
 rative language, it may justly be said, is out of 
 place in a judicial sentence, for, of all utterances, 
 this should be as strictly literal as justice itself. 
 
 If, now, Ave should believe, on this single pas- 
 sage, or for any other reason, that the element in 
 which future retribution will be administered is 
 declared to be fire, instead of air, or water, or 
 earth, we should do vast injustice to the subject 
 of divine retributions to intrude the idea. I refer 
 to it, therefore, for a purpose, which seems to me 
 important, of vindicating our belief in future 
 endless retributions from imputations of gross- 
 ness and physical barbarity. We use the lan- 
 guage of the Saviour and of his apostles without 
 hesitation, and there we stop. Any details of 
 the curse, and of the punishment, and of what 
 is "prepared," would add nothing to our con- 
 ceptions of the dread sentence from the lips 
 of Him whose "left hand" was once nailed to 
 the atoning cross, for those whom he bids, 
 "Depart." 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 153 
 
 If the language of Christ in that last sentence, 
 and in other places, relating to future punish- 
 ment, be figurative, we remember that, by the 
 laws of the human mind, figurative language is 
 generally resorted to in consequence of insuf- 
 ficiency in literal terms. We do not cavil at the 
 use of figurative speech, nor subtract from its 
 intention, when we know that the speaker is 
 serious and earnest. If a master-in-chancery in- 
 forms a man that his property has proved " to be 
 zero," the man will not remind his friends, nor 
 insist with his creditors, that the expression is 
 only metaphorical. 
 
 We believe that the threatening of future 
 endless punishment has been one great means 
 of what little fear of God there has hitherto been 
 in this world ; and that it has been a powerful 
 element in the causes which have led to the sal- 
 vation of the "multitude which no man can 
 number," who "fled for refuge to lay hold upon 
 the hope set before them." We are not ashamed 
 to say that we believe in, and we fear, the ever- 
 lasting wrath of God, and that this has been 
 a means of leading us to believe in "his Son 
 
154 EEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 from heaven, even Jesus, which delivered us 
 from the wrath to come." * 
 
 Nor is our doctrine one that narrows aud 
 enfeebles the mind. It is connected with a 
 stupendous system of truths. It leads us to 
 believe that this world, small as it is, is made 
 use of by the Creator to illustrate principles in 
 his government, " to the intent that now unto 
 principalities and powers in heavenly places 
 might be known by the church the manifold 
 wisdom of God."f 
 
 That this world is the smallest but two in the 
 planetary system, is no more a valid objection to 
 its being used for infinite purposes of wisdom, 
 than it would be to object to the size of the slate 
 on which La Place wrought out his logarithms 
 for his 3Iecaniqiie Celeste. God is solving prob- 
 lems in this world with sin ; the results may 
 enter into the practical knowledge of unnum- 
 bered worlds, as the answers to problems are 
 transferred to books of navigation, and are the 
 confidence of them that are afar off upon the sea. 
 Our own Lexington and Bunker Hill were not 
 too small for transactions which brought this 
 
 * 1 Thess. i. 10. f Eph. iii. 10. 
 
FDTUBE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 155 
 
 nation into being ; nor did one field in Waterloo 
 prove too small to have the destiny of half of 
 Europe decided there. The cross of a Redeemer 
 has stood here ; things are associated with it 
 which we are told " angels desire to look into."* 
 "All things were created by him and for him, and 
 he is before all things, and by him all things con- 
 sist."! "We see Jesus, who was made a little 
 lower than the angels for the suffering of death, 
 crowned with glory and honor ; that he, by the 
 grace of God, should taste death for every man." 
 So we believe in a sacrifice for sin, which is 
 made infinitely efficacious by the presence in the 
 person of Jesus of the Word, who was " with 
 God," and " was God." In such a Redeemer 
 and in such a redemption we see our infinite 
 ruin. We believe that God w^ll show, by means 
 of those who reject this redemption, what sin is 
 capable of doing, and then, by letting sinners eat 
 of the fruit of their own ways, and filling them 
 with their own devices, perhaps he will, by the 
 help of it, so instruct and govern the universe of 
 free, accountable beings, that it shall forever be 
 said, " Dominion and fear are with him ; he 
 
 * 1 Peter i. 12. f Col. i. 16, 17. 
 
156 REASONABLENESS OF 
 
 maketh peace in his high places."* An end- 
 less heaven is prepared, in which the righteous 
 will have bodies " fashioned like unto Christ's 
 glorious body, according to the working where- 
 by he is able even to subdue all things unto 
 himself." Thus being associated most wonder- 
 fully with the incarnate AVord, they will be the 
 objects of love with all who worship at the 
 throne of God and of the Lamb, and not only so, 
 but with Him who will say of us, with more joy 
 than that with which he regards the ninety and 
 nine just persons who need no repentance, "I 
 have found the sheep that was lost." 
 
 But, in the meantime, we read that "the 
 Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with 
 his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking ven- 
 geance on them that know not God, and that 
 obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; " 
 — such is the crime and the accusation ; — " who 
 shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
 from the presence of the Lord, and from the 
 glory of his power, when he shall come to be 
 glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all 
 
 ♦ Job XXV. 2. 
 
FUTUKE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 157 
 
 them that believe (for our testimony among you 
 was believed) in that day."* 
 
 The penalty annexed to, a law is all that 
 makes it a law ; without a penalty, it is no 
 more a law . thau an extract from a sermon. 
 The penalty is the expression of the lawgiver's 
 opinion of the crime. There is something in 
 weak and insufficient penalties, and in bail far 
 below the offence, which makes the heart faint 
 and sick. It must inspirer holy beings with con- 
 fidence, who know what sin is, and what it 
 deserves, and what it would do to them if it 
 could triumph, to see and feel that there is a 
 Supreme Being, who, with all his love, has no 
 doting fondness, nor any weakness, but can bear 
 to see the wicked suffer, if necessary and right. 
 They consider his word, " The soul that sinneth, 
 it shall die/' and they see in it the foundation of 
 their confidence in God. How much evil is 
 there in sin ? It is itself evil ; anti-govern- 
 mental, subverting every form of happiness ; its 
 tendency, as we have seen, is to dethrone God. 
 If God affixes less than an infinite punishment to 
 sin, it shows that he considers it less than an 
 
 * 2 Thess. i. 7-10. 
 
158 KEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 infinite evil. If the penalty threatened against 
 such a sin be- less than infinite, the natural in- 
 ference would be, To sin against God is not an 
 infinite evil, for it has no infinite punishment. 
 Men could say, and all races on probation could 
 say. If we sin against God, our punishment will 
 come to an end ; and after that, there will be an 
 eternity in heaven, in comparison with which 
 our immense duration of punishment will become 
 as a drop to the sea.^ Men, they would say, 
 escaped at last, and are now universally and for- 
 ever happy in heaven ; and so world after world 
 might become rebellious, and their histories be 
 like those of earth. We think it reasonable to 
 say. Far better that the comparatively few 
 from earth should bear the consequences of 
 their sin forever, than that, by ah insufficient 
 punishment of sin, disaster should come upon 
 realms we know not how many and great. I say 
 this to meet the objection that the everlasting 
 punishment of any, whether comparatively a few, 
 or even of many, is to be a blot on the govern- 
 ment of God. For the whole question may re- 
 solve itself into this : Is it best that God should 
 have a moral government ? If that involves the 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 159 
 
 possibility of sin, some would say, No ; others 
 would say, Yes, provided the sinners might be 
 as free in their sin as the righteous are in their 
 righteousness ; then, for the sake of the in- 
 conceivable bliss in a universe of intelligent 
 creatures, let there be this government, by 
 motives, and let " the righteousness of the right- 
 eous be upon him, and the wickedness of the 
 wicked be upon him." Angels, it appears, were 
 placed on probation in heaven, and under the 
 most favorable circumstances ; man was placed 
 in probation in paradise, with slight inducement 
 to sin ; man had a Redeemer in the person of his 
 Creator ; angels may have had an equivalent 
 motive to obedience in the immediate presence 
 of their Creator, and in full knowledge of what 
 a forfeiture they would incur by sin. Angels 
 sinned, notwithstanding all that Heaven had 
 done to keep them upright; men perish, not- 
 withstanding the redemption made by their God 
 and Saviour. The illustrations which their eter- 
 nal punishment will afford of the nature of sin, 
 of the love of God, of divine justice, of free 
 agency, of holiness and its infinite rewards, we 
 say it is not unreasonable to believe, will out- 
 
160 REASONABLENESS OF 
 
 weigh the personal sufferings of those who vol- 
 untarily sin and perish. We say, Toluntarily 
 perish; for. God will give to each one according 
 to his deeds. Though there were an inconceiv- 
 able multitude who should perish, yet in the 
 immense variety of their individual cases, dis- 
 criminating justice will be weighed out to them 
 with a care and exactness unapproached by 
 the exquisite balances in the mint, or with the 
 apothecary. Could holy beings get the im- 
 pression that there is one soul from Christian, 
 pagan, or heathen lands, with whom its Maker 
 had dealt harshly, or laid upon him one stripe 
 more than was his due, there would be sudden 
 silence among them ; they would look one upon 
 another ; and the seraphim who, in their wor- 
 ship, spread more of their six wings to cover 
 themselves with than to fly, would spread them 
 all to fly, — whither they might not say, but only 
 where they might no longer be constrained to 
 cry. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts ! 
 No such occasion ever will be given for such loss 
 of confidence; but they will say, ''Alleluia! sal- 
 vation, and glory, and honor, and power unto 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 161 
 
 the Lord our God ; for true and righteous are 
 his judgments." * 
 
 As those who desire to be of good repute with 
 you as men of understanding, and of humane, 
 generous sentiments and feelings, we do not 
 hesitate to say, that the "reasonableness of 
 future endless punishment " is as plain to us 
 as its scriptural proofs. 
 
 If, when we read that it would have been 
 good for Judas Iscariot that he had never 
 been born, and therefore that there is no eter- 
 nity of happiness for him, to follow any vast 
 period of expiatory suffering, — if we are ex- 
 pressly told that blasphemy against the Holy' 
 Ghost hath never forgiveness, neither in this 
 world nor in that which is to come, — if it be 
 true that Satan and his angels are reserved in 
 chains under darkness unto the judgment of the 
 great day, and if then a part of our race are to 
 be consigned to the same abode with them for 
 retribution, — whose eternity is expressed by the 
 selfsame, word which is employed to designate 
 the duration of happiness for the righteous ; and 
 
 * Rev. xix. 1. 
 
 11 
 
162 REASONABLENESS OF 
 
 for these and other equally powerful representa- 
 tions of the Bible, we have unwavering faith in 
 the doctrine, as a revealed truth; the confidence 
 with which w^e believe it may be judged of when 
 we say, that it commends itself to our reason as 
 truly as it does to our faith. How it commends 
 itself to our faith, may be learned by knowing 
 that the doctrine does not stand as an isolated 
 thing in our belief. The laws of comparative 
 anatomy, so to speak, may be applied to it, and 
 w^e say. If certain things are true, which in our 
 earliest discoveries of practical truth we are con- 
 fident are essential to salvation, then this doc- 
 trine is as really required, as immense vertebrae 
 of an unknown animal require that the undiscov- 
 ered ribs should also be immense. An astrono- 
 mer notices the slower or quicker rate of motion 
 in a planet at one part of its orbit, and he tells 
 you that there must be a world beyond it, not 
 yet seen ; he tells you its size, its gravity, its 
 orbit, its rate of motion ; and when at last 
 Neptune is discovered, it proves to be precisely 
 that which Uranus dictated by his perturbations. 
 So that the doctrine of endless retribution is not, 
 with us, a mere dogma; it belongs to a great 
 
FUTURE, EKDLESS PUNISHMENT. 163 
 
 scheme of revealed truth which we call the 
 "plan of redemption," all of which stands or 
 falls together. 
 
 The key to this great scheme — ''which," we 
 are warranted to say, "in other ages was not 
 made known unto the sons of men as it is now 
 revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets" 
 — is the Supreme Deity of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Believe that, and logically you are led 
 to receive the whole. Reject that, and you can- 
 not consistently believe the doctrine now under 
 discussion. 
 
 ***What think ye of Christ?' is the test 
 To try both your state and your scheme." 
 
 The Creator, the Second Person in the God- 
 head, takes our nature ; that mysterious, com- 
 plex Being goes to the cross, and dies. Then 
 the atonement follows, as a matter of course; 
 and if an atonement is made for sin, then the 
 wages of sin is death. If man can atone for sin 
 by ages of suffering, and then reach heaven, it 
 is unreasonable, we say, to believe that this 
 stupendous sacrifice would have been made. So 
 
164 REASONABLENESS OF 
 
 that Christ is " the power of God and the wisdom 
 of God unto salvation." There are words of 
 mighty import in that passage : " Who hath made 
 him to he sin for us who knew no sin, that we 
 might be made tlie righteousness of God in 
 -him."* 
 
 "The wages of sin is death." Some 
 say, The wages of sin is conscience ; some. The 
 wages of sin is discipline ; some. The wages of 
 sin is imprisonment for a great indefinite period, 
 for the purpose of punishment and restoration. 
 Let us adhere to the Bible : " The wages of sin 
 is death." If you call it figurative, the laws of 
 rhetoric teach us that a meaning totally opposite 
 to the nature of a figure cannot be true. The 
 ruling idea conveyed by the word death is ter- 
 mination. If you search the Bible for instances 
 in which death means a limited infliction, and so 
 reduce one side of the equation in the passage 
 from which the text is taken, you must by neces- 
 sity reduce the other side ; and thus, so much 
 as you diminish deaths you must diminish life ; 
 for if death be not death, neither is life eter- 
 nal life.* 
 
 * 2 Cor. V. 21. 
 
FUTUBE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 165 
 
 Notice also the two contrasted words in the 
 verse from which the text is taken : '' The wages 
 of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal 
 life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Death for 
 sin is " wages " — something earned or merited. 
 Eternal life is not ''wages" to us; it is to 
 angels. The law is the angels' gospel. They 
 stand by obedience. But to us eternal life, if 
 we have it, is without works — a gift, unmerited, 
 free. Having forfeited heaven by sin, God 
 stands ready to give it to us on certain terms, 
 the terms and method themselves being no less 
 wonderful than the gift. 
 
 Need I remind you tha.t this is a subject 
 which, for each of us, is of unparalleled inter- 
 est? Each of us may. without presumption, 
 say with his Maker, " I live forever." If God 
 says, '' Of my years there is no end," the words 
 may be responded to by us : Of my years there 
 is no end. But each of us is also a sinner, 
 ruined and lost. We believe that sin can fre 
 forgiven only by faith in Jesus Christ, who, by 
 his sufferings and death, is a substitute for the 
 sinner, and constitutes for him a righteousness 
 
166 EEASONABLENESS OF 
 
 which takes away his condemnation, and pre- 
 pares for his sanctification and salvation. We 
 are told that there is salvation in no other way, 
 and, moreover, that unbelief of it, where there 
 has been suflScient opportunity to understand it, 
 proceeds from a wrong state of feeling, and is 
 therefore morally wrong, and that such unbelief 
 is declared by Christ and his apostles to be the 
 greatest of all pardonable sins. Christ says, 
 " He that believeth not the Son shall not see 
 life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." 
 Do we who preach tell the people this ? Surely 
 it is not possible for the Son of God to suffer 
 and die in our stead, and we be innocent if we 
 do not believe in him ; but we shall add to the 
 guilt of sin the heavier guilt of rejecting the 
 offered remedy, procured at such infinite expense. 
 The sight of Christ will close our lips if we are 
 not saved. He portrayed the scenes of the last 
 judgment ; the separation, the welcome of the 
 righteous, and the sinner's doom. And having 
 done this, he went to " a place which is called 
 Calvary," and died to save us from the con- 
 demnation which he had so faithfully and affect- 
 
FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 167 
 
 ingly portrayed. If we fail to believe in him, 
 and he therefore fails to redeem us from our 
 sin, we must experience the truth of our text. 
 And when the judgment is passed by, and the 
 wicked have gone to their own place, and angels 
 stand in silence, weeping, and thinking of their 
 end, methinks I hear one of them break the 
 silence and say, After the Saviour had suffered 
 for them, it is an infinite pity that they should 
 perish. And may many (may it be all !) of you, 
 who now are unbelievers, but then redeemed 
 sinners, continue the strain and say, " For God 
 so loved the world that he gave his only-begot- 
 ten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
 not perish, but have everlasting life." Salva- 
 tion ! Salvation ! Every one of us can be 
 saved. "For God hath not appointed us to 
 wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake 
 or sleep we should live together with him." O 
 Saviour ! how sweet thy name ! how precious 
 thy dying love, in connection with this theme ! 
 Thou art our sun, pouring celestial beauty on 
 those clouds which are round about God, and 
 
168 ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 
 
 painting on this darkness and tempest at which 
 
 we have gazed, a rainbow in sight like unto an 
 
 emerald. May we all cast our crowns at thy 
 
 .feet, saying: "Unto hesi that loved us, and 
 
 WASHED us FEOM OUR SINS IN HIS OWN 
 BLOOD, AND HATH MADE US KINGS AND PEIESTS 
 
 UNTO God and his Father ; to hiivi be gloiiy 
 
 AND dominion FORE VEB AN D EVER. AmEN." 
 
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I HISTORIC HYMNS. I 
 
 CoUected by REV. W. F. CRAFTS. 
 
 Music arranged under the supervision of Br, E, Tourjee, 
 
 A COI.I.ECTION OP 
 
 a hundred popular Stakdakd Hymns, of which incidental 
 ai'e given in " Trophies of SongJ*^ A pamphlet of thirty-two 
 pages, in stout covers, which affords 
 
 A CHEAP HYMN BOOK 
 
 for Sunday Schools, Congregational Singing, Praise Meetings, 
 Concerts, Camp Meetings and Special Services. It has 
 doubled the volume of congregational singing in churches, 
 where it has been used, by furnishing the words, at a slight 
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 Price, in Stout Paper Cover, per 100, - - S7.00. 
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 Send ten cents for specimen copy. 
 
 TROPHIES OF SONG. 
 
 By Rev. W. F. Crafts. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DR. E. TOURJEE. 
 
 A COMPILATION OF 
 
 200 STRIKING 8NCIDENTS, 
 
 connected with the origin and history of our most popular 
 hymns, both of the Church and Sunday School, together 
 with articles by prominent writers on "Praise Meetings,** 
 "Congregational Singing," "Sunday School Singing,'* and 
 all the various uses of sacred music. Its suggestions and in- 
 cidents make it valuable to pastors, superintendents and 
 choristers, and its numerous and thrilling incidents give it 
 interest for the general reader and even for children. PriCd 
 $1.25. 
 
 D. LOTHBOP & CO., Publishers, 
 
SUGAR PLUMS. Poems by Ella Farman. Pic- 
 tures by Miss C. A. Northam. Price, $i oo. D. Lothrop 
 & Co., Boston. 
 
 This collection of sweets, which the critics say is the 
 best verse-bookpubhshed since " Lilliput Levee,'' will prob- 
 ably prove to be one of the most popular Christmas-Tree 
 books of the season. The poems are written from a child's 
 own point-of-view, and some of them, like ** Learning to 
 Count," "Baby's Frights," *' Pinkie-Winkie-Posie-Bell," 
 will be perennial favorites in the nursery. While the book 
 is sure to captivate the baby-memory, we will whisper to 
 the mothers that there is not an idle "jingle" in the vol- 
 ume, but that every verse will subtly give a refining and 
 shaping touch to the little child-soul. The book is at- 
 tractively bound, handsomely illustrated, and ought to be 
 found in every Christmas Stocking in the land. 
 
 Ask your Bookseller for it. 
 
 POEMS IN COMPANY WITH CHILDREN. — By 
 Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt. Illustrated. Price, $i 50. D. 
 Lothrop & Co., Boston. 
 
 A mother's book — one of those dainty, treasured vol- 
 umes of poetry which naturally find a resting-place in the 
 mother's work-basket, always at hand, to be taken up in a 
 tender moment. It abo contains many poems to be read 
 aloud in the twilight hour when the children gather around 
 mother's knee. Of its literary excellence it is needless to 
 speak as Mrs. Piatt stands at the head of American womei> 
 poets. 
 
THE CHAUTAUQUA GIRLS AT HOME.— 
 
 By Pansy. Author of " Four Girls at Chautauqua,," &c. 
 Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price, $1.50. 
 
 The four brilliant young ladies, three from the highest 
 social ranks, and one a teacher with infidel tendencies, who, 
 having abandoned Newport and Saratoga for Chautauqua 
 Lake and its Sunday-school Assembly, were there converted, 
 and, having returned to their city homes, with their simple 
 faith and joyous experience, they enter the First Church, 
 seeking Christian help and a field for usefulness. Hesi- 
 tatingly they enter the Sunday-school. Their presence there 
 is almost resented by pastor and superintendent, who knew 
 of their former lives of social vaporing, but did not know of 
 their conversion. The rebuff does not wholly dishearten 
 the young ladies. They go to the social meetings, where 
 their persistent attendance brings about an explanation. 
 They confess Christ, are received into the Church, enter 
 into its work with zeal, and by their efforts and influence 
 remodel the Sunday-school, stir up the social meetings, and 
 help to bring about a great revival. 
 
 These young ladies in their developing lives represent four 
 classes of Christians, with which every pastor has to deal, 
 and from studying these models pastors can learn helpful 
 lessons, for they are here depicted with a masterly skill. 
 The First Church is a representative dead Church. The de- 
 cayed members and the cause of death are pointed out. The 
 question of social amusements for Christians is discussed 
 and answered from the Bible. The Sunday-school is dull 
 and inefficiently managed. How to improve it and make it 
 a success is indicated in a practical way. In short, the 
 w^hole case of spiritually dead Churches is diagnosticated 
 with the wisdom of a practical physician, and the revivify- 
 ing remedies prescribed. Pastors, superintendents, teachers. 
 Christians, young and old, should read this book. It con- 
 tains help for all. "Pansy'' has written nothing better 
 — N. Y. Christian Advocate. 
 
3yCISS CTTJIjI-A. -A.. E J^SrriS/r-A.Isr is one of the most popular 
 of our modern writers. 
 
 YOUNG RICK. By yuliaA.Eashnan. Large 
 
 i6mo. Twelve illustrations by Sol Ey tinge . $i 50 
 
 A bright, fascinating story of a little boy who was both a bless- 
 ing and a bother. — Boston yournal. 
 
 The most delightful book on the list for the children of the 
 family, being full of adventures and gay home scenes and merry 
 play-times. "Paty" would have done credit to Dickens in his 
 palmiest days. The strange glows and shadows of her character 
 are put in lovingly and lingeringly, with the pencil of a master. 
 Miss Margaret's character of light is admirably drawn, while Aunt 
 Lesbia, Deacon Harkaway, Tom Dorrance, and the master and 
 mistress of Graythorpe poor-house are genuine "charcoal 
 sketches." 
 
 STRIKING FOR THE RIGHT. By Julia 
 
 A. Eastman, Large i6mo. Illustrated ' . i 75 
 
 While this story holds the reader breathless with expectancy 
 and excitement, its civilizing influence in the family is hardly to 
 be estimated. In all quarters it has met with the warmest praise. 
 
 THE ROMNEYS OF RIDGEMONT. By 
 
 Julia A, Eastma7i. i6mo. Illustrated . i 50 
 
 BEULAH ROMNEY. By Julia A. Eastman, 
 
 16 mo. Illustrated * . . . . . i 50 
 
 Two stories wondrously alive, flashing with fun, sparkling with 
 tears, throbbing with emotion. The next best thing to attending 
 Mrs. Hale's big boarding-school is to read Beulah's experience 
 there. 
 
 SHORT-COMINGS AND LONG-GOINGS. 
 
 V>y Julia A. Eastman, 16 mo. Illustrated, i 25 
 
 A remarkabls book, crowded with remarkable characters. It 
 is a picture gallery of human nature. 
 
 KITTY KENT'S TROUBLES. By Julia 
 A. Eastma7i. 16 mo. Illustrated 
 
 "A delicious April-day style of book, sunshiny with smiles on 
 one page while the next is misty with tender tears. Almost every 
 type of American school-girl is here represented — the vain Helen 
 Dart, the beauty, Amy Searle, the ambitioiis, high bred, conserv- 
 ative Anna Matson ; but next to Kitty herself sunny little Paul- 
 ine Sedgewick will prove the general favorite. It is a story fully 
 calculated to win both girls and boys toward noble, royal ways of 
 doing little as well as great things. All teachers should feel an 
 interest in placing it in the hands of their pupils." 
 
 5° 
 
VIRGINIA. By /^F. H. G.Kingston, i6 mo. 
 
 Illustrated $i 25 
 
 A stirring story of adventure upon sea and land. 
 
 AFRICAN ADVENTURE AND ADVENT- 
 URERS. By Rev, G. T. Day, D. D, 16 
 mo. Illustrated . . . . - . i 50 
 
 The stories of Speke, Grant, Baker, Livingstone and Stanley 
 are put into simple shape for the entertainment of young readers. 
 
 NOBLE WORKERS. Edited by S, F. Smith, 
 
 D. D. i6mo. . . . . . . i 50 
 
 STORIES OF SUCCESS. Edited by S. F. 
 
 Smith, D. D, i6mo . . . . . i 50 
 
 Inspiring biographies and records which leave a most whole- 
 some and enduring effect upon the reader. 
 
 MYTHS AND HEROES. 16 mo. Illus- 
 trated. Edited by S. F. Smith, D. D . . 150 
 
 KNIGHTS AND SEA KINGS. Edited by 
 
 S, F. Smith, D. D. i2mo. Illustrated . i 50 
 
 Two entertaining books, which will fasten forever the historical 
 and geographical lessons of the school-room firmly in the stu- 
 dent's mind. 
 
 CHAPLIN'S LIFE OF BENJAMIN FRANK- 
 LIN. i6mo. Illustrated . . . . i 50 
 
 LIFE OF AMOS LAWRENCE. i2mo. Ill i 50 
 
 Two biographies of perennial value. No worthier books were 
 ever ofEered as holiday presents for our American young men. 
 
 WALTER NEAL'S EXAMPLE. By Rev. 
 
 Theron Brown. 16 mo. Illustrated . .125 
 
 Walter Neal's Example is by Rev. Theron Brown, the editor of 
 that very successful paper. The Youth'' s Companion. The story 
 is a touching one, and is in parts so vivid as to seem drawn from 
 the life. — N. Y. Independent. 
 
 TWO FORTUNE-SEEKERS. Stories by 
 Rossiter Johnson, Louise Chandler Moiilton, 
 E, Stuart Phelps, Ella Farman, etc. Fully 
 illustrated 1-50 
 
A Moments Chat with our Friends, 
 
 Pleasure Book, Pansy's Picture Book, Pictures for 
 ourDarlij^gs, Two Fortune Seekers, Word Pictures, 
 each deserve a permanent niche, being sweet and sound from 
 the first page to the last. These are the worli of oiii- fore- 
 most authors. Bayard Taylor, Miss Alcott, Mrs. Whitney, 
 Bossiter Johnson, Ella Farman, Mrs. Louise Chandler Moul- 
 ton, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Mrs, B, H. Stoddard, Sophie 
 
 May, etc. We also believe that we offer, in our List 
 
 for Boys, volumes which may safely be read without first 
 passing under parental scrutiny and excision, but which at 
 the same time shall satisfy a boy's longing for adventure 
 and his admiration for the stirring and the heroic, and shall 
 leave him resolute instead of restless, ready, for action and 
 
 patient toil, instead of filling his brain with idle dreams. 
 
 Our list for Girls is eqully wholesome and entertaining. 
 We also offer for examination the Wide Awake Maga- 
 zine, edited by Ella Farman, D. Lothrop & Co., Boston, 
 Publishers. This magazine is furnished at the low price of 
 $2.00 per annum, post-paid. It is exquisitely illustrated by 
 Sol Eytinge, Waud, Merrill, Jessie Curtis, Miss HallocJc, 
 Miss Northam, Miss Humphrey, Mrs. Finley, Miss Farman 
 is supported by a brilliant array of contributors, Mrs. B. H, 
 Stoddard, Mrs. Celia Thaxter, Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt, Mrs. 
 Moulton, Mrs. Emily Huntington Miller, Bossiter Johnson, 
 Charles E. Hurd, Sophie May, Margaret Eytinge, Nora 
 Perry, etc. The attractions for 1877 include a serial by 
 Sophie May, Quinnebasset Girls, Good-for-Nothing 
 Polly, by Ella Farman, and Child Marian Abroad, by 
 Wm. M. T. Bounds, of the N. Y. Independent, the latter be- 
 ing records of a little girl's visits to the Pope, Empress Eu- 
 genie, Princess Marie Yalerie, Madame McMahon, etc., 
 
 illustrated with portraits. We shall show this magazine 
 
 to our patrons with pride and satisfaction, and receive and 
 forward subscriptions. We are also able to furnish a cat- 
 alogue of Messrs. Lothrop & Co.'s choice publications, in- 
 cluding 500 vols., upon application. We can cordially com- 
 mend Messrs. Lothrop & Co.'s publications, for their whole- 
 someness of tone, their power of entertainment, and their 
 superior graces of style. 
 
THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME. In sending forth a 
 
 new and revised edition of this work the Publishers append a few of ttt 
 many favorable notices which, from various sources, testify to its 
 catholicity, and its adaptation to the wants of the disciples of our Lor«i 
 by whatever denominational name they may be called. 
 The Name above Every Name, or. Devotional Meditations. 
 With a text for every day in the year. By the Rev. Samuel Cidler, 
 
 This little volume, which is a gem of typography, is just what it claims 
 to be — "devotional and practical.* The pure gold of the gospel is here 
 without the base alloy of man's wisdom. It accords with the teachings 
 of the divine Spirit, and tends to exalt in the souls of men the Christ of 
 God. 
 
 The texts are fitly chosen, and the exquisite fragments of sacred poetry 
 
 seem like jewels from a mine of inspiration. None can read this book 
 devoutly without being benefited ; and all who read it in the spirit in which 
 it appears to have been written, will lay down the volume with higher 
 views of Christ's nature, and of His work, and reverently acknowledge that 
 if His name be above every name in dignity and glory, it is also, as de- 
 clared in the inspired canticle, ** as ointment poured forth" in its heavenly 
 fragrance . — Parish Visitor. 
 
 Front the Congregationist. 
 
 The Name above Every Name, it has a chapter for every 
 
 week in the year, each chapter preceded with appropriate passages from 
 Scripture and closing with a choice selection from devotional poetry. The 
 whole book is eminently evangelical, and fitted to foster the growth of 
 true and genuine piety in the soul. 
 
 The Name above Every Name. By the Rev. Samuel 
 
 Cutler. This has been carefully prepared by its author. The texts are 
 for every day in the year, and have reference to the Scriptural titles of 
 cur Lord. The devotional and practical meditations are for every week in 
 the year. The appendix contains five hundred and twenty five titles of 
 our Lord, with the Scriptual reference; also a topical and alphabetical list 
 of the titles, and of first lines of poetry with the author's name. 
 
 The work is exceedingly valuable, not only for its meditations, but for 
 the great amount of information which it contains. It is a book which 
 the Christian would do well always to have at hand. Evagelical KnowU 
 edge Society. 
 The volume is a precious vade viecum, for all who love the **Name that 
 is above every m.m^" — Protestant Churchman. 
 Plain Edition |i.oo Full Gilt $i 50 Red line Edition $2.00 
 
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