that they who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power," means destruction, or ruin during that period from the presence of the Lord and his glorious power; that is, exclusion from his presence and from that glorious kingdom into which the Righteous will at that time be admitted.

In the text in Jude, Angels, whether the word means superior beings or messengers, are spoken of as reserved for a punishment similar to that which the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah endured. That fire, however, has been long since extinguished, as well as that which continued burning in the valley of Hinnom, which is alluded to in the words "where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched."

ages of

of ages.

In the figurative language of a prophetic vision, in the fourteenth chapter of the Revelations it is said, "the smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever," that is for Now if we were to allow this to mean for ever, "it is not here asserted that the torment continues, but the smoke of it. This may be the case after the wretched victim has ceased to suffer and a memorial of the punishment inflicted on vice may remain, long after vice itself has been utterly exterminated. After all, as this prophecy relates to states of things in the present world, it is possible that the punishment threatened ought to be understood of temporal sufferings, and not of the sufferings of a future life."

The same may be said of the phrase in the nineteenth chapter, "and her smoke goeth up for ages of ages."

* Improved Version.

The

The last text to be taken notice of is in Rev. xx. 10. "And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

Now it is obvious to remark that this text does not relate to human beings at all, but to the Devil, by which word I cannot but understand the Principle of Evil personified. We are then informed -and the information is grateful to the mind—that “y this symbolical person, with the beast and the false prophet, which are likewise symbolical persons, shall be tormented day and night for ages of ages." From this text "the following glorious inference seems to be deducible. That all the corruptions of the Christian religion, as well as all hea

> Improved Version.

then

then idolatry and the spirit of persecution, shall be for ever exterminated. And pure and undefiled Religion, in its spirit and in its power, shall every where prevail, and produce universal peace and harmony and happiness. This is the true coming of Christ. And to the promise of his speedy appearance for these glorious purposes, what benevolent heart can refuse to adopt the response of the prophet, Amen! Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!"

It will, I doubt not, strike every one with astonishment, who impartially examines these texts, that the human mind in its wildest excursions should have presumed that it had discovered in them so horrid a doctrine as the eternal existence in misery of by far the larger portion of the human race. Had this been a doctrine of Revelation, it would have been, as it easily might have been, conveyed in unequivocal language. I could

give you quotations from the Koran of Mohammed-but they would make you shudder-in which it is expressed in the plainest language possible-in language which I cannot better characterize than by saying it seems borrowed from the regions which it describes 2.

The

* See Sale's Koran, 1764, chap. ii. p. 9. "They who shall be unbelievers and accuse our signs of falsehood, shall be the companions of hell fire, therein shall they remain for ever." P. 16. "whoso doth evil and is encompassed by his iniquity, they shall be the companions of hell fire, they shall remain therein for ever." P. 29. "Surely they who believe not, and die in their unbe lief, upon them shall be the curse of God, and of the angels, and of all men; they shall remain under it for ever; their punishment shall not be alleviated, neither shall they be regarded." 30. "they shall sigh grievously, and shall not come forth from the fire of hell." 95. "whoso disobeyeth God, and his apostle, and trans, gresseth his statutes, God shall cast him into hell fire, he shall remain therein for ever, and he shall suffer a shameful punishment." 105. " the raging fire of hell is a sufficient punishment. Verily those who disbelieve our signs, we will surely cast to be broiled in hell fire; so often as their skins shall be well burned, we will give them other skins in exchange that they may take the sharper torment."