Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/177

 sometimes used in Scripture to denote the whole angelic heaven, or some society thereof, is also used in the plural (angels) to denote two or more individuals; for every angel is a heaven in the smallest form.

Similar remarks may be made with reference to the use of the word devil. It is used in the singular as a collective term to denote all hell in the complex; and again we find the same word often used in the plural (devils), denoting individual evil spirits, or the constituent parts of hell, which are similar in character to the whole.

We use the term man in precisely the same way. We sometimes apply it to a single individual, and sometimes to the race. It is often used in this latter sense in the Bible, as a collective term. As where it is said: "God made man in his own image." "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live." Again we use this word in the plural (men), when speaking of a number of individuals, or of mankind in general.

And what is more common than to hear a country, a kingdom, or state, or other community of persons spoken of as a single individual. Every one speaks of England, France, Germany, the United States, etc., or the people of these countries viewed collectively, as one person, with the same familiarity and the same confidence of being understood, as he would speak of Mr. Smith or Mr. Jones, his next door neighbor.