inflicted by three Jewish courts of justice. These punishments, beyond a doubt, bore a meaning which was well known to his hearers, but, in our ignorance of their precise nature, they are somewhat obscure to us. Our Lord, however, evidently intended to convey the idea of gradation in future punishment, the last one threatened being the most terrible, being analogous to what his hearers understood by the "Gehenna of fire." In the second passage above quoted, the threatening, freed from metaphor, affirms that it is profitable for a man to get rid of a passion prompting him to sin, however loved, by any means however violent, rather than that the whole man should be cast into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, to which in the second clause is added, "where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched;" on the same principle that a man would prefer to part with his right eye, or his right hand, rather than that his whole body should be cast into it.

What, then, did our Lord mean, and what did his hearers understand, by the words, "the Gehenna of fire"?

The words, "where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched," are evidently an allusion to the following passage in Isaiah :—

"And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me" (i.e. at Jerusalem) "saith the Lord; and they shall go forth, and shall look at the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.” (Isaiah lxvi. 23, 24.)

In this passage it is obvious that not living beings but dead carcases are spoken of as a prey of the worm that never dies and of the fire which is never quenched. Such imagery, however, was one pre-eminently fitted to impress a Jew, a Greek, or a Roman with the idea of all that is terrible. in death-for nothing was more abhorrent to their feelings

than that the bodies of the dead should remain unburied; and, consequently, to convey to those who heard the utterance we are considering, the idea that some terrible form of destruction awaited wilful sinners in the unseen world.

It is important to observe that the word Gehenna, here translated "hell," is neither more nor less than the name of a valley situated a short distance from Jerusalem. To a Jew it conveyed the idea of everything which was odious, for it had not only been the scene of the Moloch worship of former times, in which living victims were consumed in the fire, but it had subsequently become the place to which all the dead carcases and filth of Jerusalem were carried. We are informed by Jewish writers that a fire was here kept continually burning for the purpose of consuming them, but their authority for this assertion is doubtful. We are likewise told that the Jews viewed the scenes enacted in this valley as symbolical of the punishment which awaited the wicked in the underworld. Be this as it may, the language is evidently symbolical-it is impossible to express truth respecting the unseen world except in symbolical language;-but the symbols were fitted to impress those who heard our Lord with the awful consequences with which sin unrepented of will be attended hereafter. Still there is nothing in the symbols used which suggests the idea that the fate of such sinners would be a conscious existence in torments which would never end. On the contrary, the imagery suggests that of ultimate destruction; and it is difficult to see how in the ordinary use of language they can bear any other signification; for it by no means follows because a fire is unquenchable that the same victim will continue to burn in it for ever, or, because a worm will never die, that it will continue to prey for ever on the same carcase. It has been urged that the worm that never dies is a metaphor to denote an ever-gnawing conscience; but although such a meaning may suggest itself to

philosophers and divines in their closets, it is most unlikely that it would have done so to the promiscuous multitudes whom our Lord was addressing. Both words must be alike symbolical or alike literal; and however they may be understood, they can only denote ultimate destruction.

St. Matthew records the following utterance of our Lord, which throws considerable light on the metaphorical language we have been considering:

Whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea. . . . . And if thy hand or thy foot causeth thee to stumble, cut it off and cast it from thee; it is good for thee to enter into life (eis Tv (w) maimed or halt, rather than, having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire (To Top Tò aiúviov). And if thy eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast it 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" (eis Ty yéeνvav TOû TUρós, into the Gehenna of fire). (Matt. xviii. 6-9.)

No one can entertain a doubt that the language of this passage is highly metaphorical, and that it is intended to be an impressive warning, to those who are guilty of tempting others into such courses, of the consequences with which that sin will be attended; the words τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον, and τὴν γέενναν τοῦ πυρός, bearing the same meaning as in the preceding utterances. But the words to which I would draw the reader's particular attention are the following: "Whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea." Such a fate would be a far lighter doom. than to be cast into "the eternal fire," or "the Gehenna of

fire; but the words contain no hint that our Lord intended by them to teach that the punishment of such a sin would be a never-ending existence in never-ending torment. No words could have been less likely to suggest this idea than that it is profitable for a man to have a great millstone hanged about his neck and he be cast into the depth of the sea; the former denoting terrible suffering which will be endless and hopeless, and the latter a pain, probably not severe, which will terminate in five minutes, or even less. Surely if our Lord had intended it to be understood that the punishment of such a sinner would be endless existence in neverending torment, He would have said so plainly.

The following are denunciations against sin wilfully persisted in:

1. "Wide is the gate and broad is the way which leadeth to destruction" (eis tìjv áñúλeiav). (Matt. vii. 13.)

2. "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy (únоλéoα) both soul and body in Gehenna." (Matt. x. 28.)

3. "Except ye repent, ye shall in like manner perish" (ἀπολεῖσθε). (Luke xiii. 3.)

4. "And it shall be, that every soul which shall not hearken to that prophet shall be utterly destroyed (¿¿oλo¤pevOσera) from among the people." (Acts iii. 23.)

5. "Behold ye despisers, and wonder and perish" (apavloonTe). (Acts xiii. 41.)

All the Greek terms here used denote what in popular English we mean by the word "destruction." They say nothing as to whether the process of destruction will be long or short, but they imply that it will be a painful one. No ordinary speaker of Greek could have understood them in any other sense without being warned that a different meaning was intended to be attached to them. Few expressions could have been less adapted to convey to the hearer the idea of a

conscious existence in never-ending torment. From the second of these passages we learn that our Lord used "Gehenna" as a symbol of the place of the future punishment of the wicked; and from the fourth, that the destruction of those spoken of would be utter and complete.

The two following passages present us with the same subject from a different point of view:

1. "Agree with thine adversary quickly whiles thou art with him in the way, lest haply the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the last farthing." (Matt. v. 25, 26.)

2. "And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due. So shall also my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye forgive not every one his brother from your hearts." (Matt. xviii. 34, 35.)

The language of these passages is metaphorical, the metaphor in the first being derived from the mode in which judges in those days dealt with debtors; and in the second, from the mode in which masters punished their slaves, even those of the highest rank. These practices were beyond all doubt well known to our Lord's hearers, and He uses them as illustrations of the consequences which will overtake sin, wilfully persisted in, in the unseen world. It should be observed, also, that the word Baoaviors, "tormentor," does not βασανιστής, necessarily mean in the Greek language one who actually inflicts tortures, but the keeper of a prison, the term being applied to him because he not unfrequently acted in the capacity of torturer.

The expressions, "Till thou hast paid the last farthing," and "Till he should pay all that was due," have been very generally understood as affirmations that the punishment alluded to will know no termination throughout the eternity