Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/97

 denied that, so far as the Bible in its literal sense teaches anything about the duration of hell, it teaches that it will be unending. The same terms to indicate endless duration, that are applied to heaven, are also applied to hell. Its punishment is said to be "everlasting," and its fire "the fire that never shall be quenched." "And these [the wicked] shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life."

And the great majority of the First Christian Church have believed, according to the plain teaching of the letter, that the hell of which the Bible speaks is to be unending in duration, and that those who go there after death will remain there for ever. It is plain that the Lord intended that those who received his Word (as Christians have hitherto for the most part) in its literal sense, should believe in the eternity of hell. Otherwise, we may be sure that very different language would have been employed from what we find wherever the duration of hell is spoken of. And if it be argued, as it sometimes is, that the words "eternal" and "everlasting" are occasionally applied in Scripture to things known to be of temporary duration, and if the force of the argument be admitted, what follows? Why, simply that the Bible teaches nothing in regard to the duration of hell, and that no argument can be drawn from its language either for or against its eternity.

Let us turn, then, to that more recent revelation which