THE ' KING’S BUSINESS
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fool, \ha ll be in, danger of the hell of fire.” These are Christ’s own words., He not only speaks of hell, but a “hell of fire, , and this too is .from the Sermon on thè Mount. In Matt. 18: 9 the Lord Jesus says again ; “And if thine eye cause .thee toás stumble,. pluck it out, and cast if from thee; it is good for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire.” And again in Mark 9 : 43-49, the passage, read a few moments ago, we read, “And if thy hand, cause thee to stumble, cut it off; it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. And i f thy foot cause thee to stumble, cut it off; i t is good for thee to enter’into life halt, rather than having thy two feet to be cast, into hell. And if thine eye cause thee< to stumble, cast it out; it is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one ■ eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell, where the worm dieth not, and THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.” Here again some may say the fire is figurative1, Turn to Matt. 13 :30, 41, 42, we read these , words, “Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather up first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; ^ but gather the wheat into my barn." Now here is a parable and we háve figures and there would be warrant, if this were all th a t. we had, for saying that the fire was figura tive, as other things in the verse aré figura tive; but in the 41st and 42nd verses of the same chapter we read, “The son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and they that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace OF FIRE; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Here wè have the interpretation of the parable. Now in parables, as already said, we have figures, but in the interpretation of parables we have the literal facts which the figures represent, but we see clearly that here in the interpretation as well as in the parable,
natural meaning of them. If there is no literal hell then either Jesus thought there was one when there was not, in which case He.was a fool, or else He knew that there vías not, but tried to make men think that there was, in which case He was a fraud. There is no other alternative but either to believe that there is a literal hell or else to believe that Jesus of Nazareth, our Lord and Saviour, was a fool or a fraud. I know that Jesus was not a fool. I know that He was the only begotten Soil of God, that in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; that He and the Father are- one, that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. I know that He spoke the very words of God, therefore-1 know that .there is a literal hell, for He Said so. It is worthy of note, furthermore, that most of these words about hell that I have read you tonight are taken from the Sermon on the Mount, the one part of the Bible that pretty much all men claim to believe. There are many who say that they do not know about the Bible as a-whole,'but they do accept the Sermon on the Mount. Well,' these passages are for the most part from the Sermon on the Mount. Either accept this part of thef Sermon on the Mount or else throw the whole thing overboard as the utterance of a fool or a fraud. There is no other ground possible for any man who is willing to think things through. III. Is th e Fire of Hell L iteral F ire? The next question that confronts us is, is the fire of hell mentioned in some of the passages we have read, literal fire? This is not so vital a question as the question, is, there a literal hell, but nevertheless it is an important question, and I believe the question is plainly answered in the Bible, and plainly answered by Jesus Christ Him self. To turn again to the passage already referred to, Matt.-' 5:22, we read, “But I say unto y'ou, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou
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