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THE KING’S BUSINESS
jection of Christ. As it has been well put, they will be where they are be cause of what they are; their position will involve condition. Then, too, it must never be forgotten that the con flict of good and evil is not arbitrary, and we are not for a moment to sup pose that because God does not at once end sin that He is in any way responsible for it. Man’s ruin is due to his own wilful sin. All this tends to show that there is far too much difference in the moral state of mankind to allow of any easy doctrine of universal salvation or of annihilation. Experience shows again and again not only the fact of sur rendered wills of believers becoming more and more harmonious with the purpose of God, but also the sad truth of the wills of sinners yielded to a slavery of sin which tends to an ever- increasing degradation of life. There are far too many moral tragedies in life today to permit us to indulge the confident assertion that there will be no final tragedy of destiny, no person unwilling to turn to God. DIVINE STANDPOINT. But at this point it is important to bear in. mind the considerations found in Scripture associated with *this sol emn doctrine of everlasting punish ment. These truths do not mitigate it in the sense of shortening this re sult of sin, but they enable us to look at it from the Divine standpoint and enter more fully into its absolute righteousness. (1) We are rrot to suppose that “the lake of fire” is to be equivalent to the devil’s kingdom and reign. On the contrary, it will be “his prison, not his palace” (Anderson, “Human D e s t i n y p. 141). The final judg ment is not revealed as the time of Satan’s power, but of his overthrow, and there is no hint of lost souls tor menting one another. Christ came to
“destroy the works of the devil” and the fire is said to be “prepared for the devil and his angels.” Therefore, we are assured that “every knee shall bow” to Christ (Phil. 2:10), and that “God will be all in all” (1 Cor. 15: 28), There, is no trace of Satan’s reign after “the lake of fire,” for he is not to be the monarch, but the chief criminal. This does- not mean any abbreviation of time, or any alle viation of judgment, except so far as it may“be the recognition of God’s perfect justice. “There is no spot in all the King’s dominions in which the reign of order is so suprenie as in a prison. So shall it be in hell” (An derson, p. 142). We have, therefore, no right to assume such a continu ance of active evil power as to imply that God’s dominion is to be shared with sin. Hell is not to be the scene of triumphant malice. So that while the punishment is to be everlasting, it will not be ever-increasing.. (2) Since God is to be “all in all,’ there is a clear implication that sin is not to be everlasting in the uni verse. It had a beginning and it will have an end, for it does not seem possible that it can go on forever or be compatible with God as “all in all.” Christ will not lay down His work while one rebel remains. Of course the problem of evil both in regard to its origin and its cessation is very great and it is not easy to harmonize it with the character of God. But whatever may be the full meaning of “God is love,” it is clear that this is compatible with the permission of sin. And as there was some moral neces sity for it to commence, there is also some necessity for it to continue. The character of God is only known from the Bible, and it must never be for gotten that love includes justice, and justice requires the punishment _of sin, since government of any kind demands this. While, therefore, it is
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