T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S What did Christ teach as to the character of future retribution? We have already seen that He spoke of it as full of sorrow and misery in His seven-fold repetition of the striking ex pression: “ There shall he the weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28). In Mark 9:43-48, our Lord twice speaks of “ the fire that never shall be quenched,” and thrice adds, “ where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Of course He was using the common Jewish meta phors for Gehenna, taken from the per petual fires that burned in the valley of Hinnom to destroy the refuse, and the worms that fed upon the unburled corp ses that were cast there; but, as we have already seen, He would never have encouraged a popular delusion. Our Lord twice spoke of fruitless professors being “ cast into the fire” (Matt. 7:19; John 15 :6 ); twice of “ the furnace of fire” (Matt. 13:42, 50); twice of the "hell of fire” (Matt. 5:22; 18:9 ); and twice of “ eternal fire” (Matt. 18:8; 25:41). Granted that “ the undying worm and unquenchable fire” are metaphorical, yet these striking figures of speech must stand for startling facts, they must be symbolical of a terrible reality. We need no more regard them materially than we do the golden streets and pear ly gates of heaven; but, if the latter are emblematic of the indescribable splen dors of heaven, the former must he sym bolical of the unutterable sufferings of hell. One can no more presume to dog matize on the one than the other, but it requires no vivid stretch of the imagination to conceive an accusing conscience acting like the undying worm and insatiable desires like the un quenchable fire. In our Lord's parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the former is represented as being “ in torments” and “ in anguish” even in “Hades,” and that memory survives the present life and accompanies us beyond the grave 2.
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is clear from Abraham’s words to him, “ Son, remember” (Luke 16:23-25). Could any material torments be worse than the moral torture of an acutely sharpened conscience, in which memory becomes remorse as it dwells upon mis spent time and misused talents, upon omitted duties and committed sins, up on opportunities lost both of doing and of getting good, upon privileges neg- lected and warning rejected? It is bad enough here, where memory is so de fective, and conscience may be so easily drugged; but what must it be hereafter, when no expedients will avail to banish recollection and drown remorse? Again, what material pain could equal the moral torment of intensified lusts and passions finding no means of gratification, insatiable desires that can have no provision for .their indulgence, or if indulged, all the pleasure gone while the power remains? Surely,’ such expressions as the undying worm and the unquenchable fire represent, not pious fictions, but plain facts; and we may be sure that the reality will exceed, not fall short of, the figures employed, as in the case of the blessedness of the redeemed. The woes thus pronounced are more terrible than the thunders of Sinai, and the doom denounced more awful than that of Sodom; but we should never forget that these terrible expressions fell from the lips of Eternal Love, and came from a heart overflow ing with tender compassion for the souls of men. 3. What did Christ teach as to the continuity of future retribution? Is there any solid basis in His recorded words for the doctrine of eternal hope, or the shadow of a foundation for the idea that all men will be eventually saved? Much has been made of the fact that the Greek word “ aionios” (used by our Lord in Matt. 18:8 and 25:41, 46, and translated “ everlasting” in the Authorized, and “ eternal” in the Revised, Version) literally means “ age- long” ; but an, examination of the 25
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