THE KING’S BUSINESS
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to be broader minded than He was, or to nurture false hopes which have no solid foundation in His teaching; while t® assume a greater zeal for God’s honor, and a deeper compassion for the souls of men, is little short of blasphemy. The current objections to the orthodox doctrine of hell are made by those who allow their hearts to run away with their heads, and are founded more on sickly sentimentality than on sound scholarship. (4) In considering the subject as pro fessing Christians, the words of the Master Himself ought surely to put an end to all controversy; and these are clear and unmis takable when taken in their plain and obvi ous meaning, without subjecting them to any forced interpretation. It is greatly to be regretted that they are not more fre quently dealt with in the modern pulpit; but ministers are only human, and there is a strong temptation to preach what is pal atable,. rather than what is profitable. In this case, surely, history repeats itself; for we read in Isa. 30:10 of those who said to the prophets of old: “Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits” ; and a cowardly yielding to this demand has produced an emasculated Gospel and an enfeebled min istry in the present day. Coming now to consider briefly Christs teaching on the subject, let us ask, first of all: 1. W hat did o u r Lord teach as to the certainty of fu tu re retribu tion ? The word “retribution” is to be preferred to “punishment” because the Bible teaches us that the fate of the wicked as not an arbitrary (much less a vindictive) inflic tion, but the necessary consequence of their own sins. Taking the passages in their order, in Matt. S:22; Christ speaks of causeless anger against, and contemptuous condemnation of, others as placing us “in danger of the hell of fire,” while in verses 29 and 30 He utters a similar warning con cerning the sin of lust; and these are in the Sermon on the Mount, which is the-
most generally accepted part of His teach ing! In chapter 8:12 He speaks of unbe lieving “children of the Kingdom” being “cast forth into the outer darkness,” and adds, “There shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth”—expressions which are repeated in chapters 22:13 and 25:30. In chapter 10:28" Jesus said: “Fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”—a wholesome fear which is, decid edly lacking in the present day, and which many people regard as a remnant of super stition quite unsuited to this enlightened age! In our Lord’s own explanation of the parable of the tares and wheat, He declared: “The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out "of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth. The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the right eous, and shall cast them .into the furnace of fire; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth” (chapter 13:41, 42, 49, 50). In chapter 23:15 He speaks, of the hypocritical Pharisees as “children of hell,” ' showing that their conduct had fitted them for it, and that they would “go to their own place,” like Judas (whom He describes as “the son of perdition” in John 17:12), while in verse 33 He asks: “How shall ye escape the judgment of hell?” The law of retribution can no more be repealed than that of gravitation; it is fixed and unalterable. That hell has not been pre pared for human beings, but that they pre pare themselves for it, is clear from the sentence which our Lord says that He will pronounce upon those on His left hand in the last great day: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is pre pared for the devil and his angels” (chap. 25:41). Turning to the Gospel according to Mark, we find our Lord saying, in chapter 3:29: “Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” Whatever view
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