This a subject that needs to be kept to the front:the reasons are good and sufficient for this assertion, chiefly because the denial of eternal punishment is linked invariably with the worst kinds of errors, and also because it is becoming so very prevalent in the Church at large.

Were the question, as so many think, one of eternal punishment alone, it would not require so much attention, but could be allowed to rest where other more or less erroneous things are allowed to rest; that is, with the individual conscience.

But it ought to be apparent on the face of it that anything so vitally connected with the death of Christ in relation to sin, must of necessity be of the greatest possible importance, although it may not appear so at first sight. Whatever is so vitally associated with Christ's death must in some way partake of the character, as to importance, of that death. Is it not safe to say that the punishment of the unrepentant must be measured by the death of Christ for sin ? Is it not correct to say that the death of Christ is measured by the character of the person who died ? Does not that death necessarily reflect what must be the punishment of those who die in their sins ? Although the death on the cross receives its true value from what and who He is that died, yet that only the more reveals the true character of sin, and consequently the punishment for sin. The death of Christ and the punishment of the unrepentant must correspond.

We may perhaps be able to find an illustration that will enable us to see what is involved in sin, and how sin on the part of finite man can be infinite in effect. Suppose a flag of the United States was insulted. Is not the whole nation insulted ? Does every flag, or every citizen, have to be insulted before the nation is injured ? No; a part here is equivalent to the whole. Nor does the source of the insult have to be a nation of equal standing with the one insulted; it may be the most insignificant country insulting the greatest nation on earth; the result is the same. The insult is measured by the character of the nation insulted. Or, to refer to a fact in nature, we can illustrate our point still more clearly. The luminous either is supposed to be coextensive with space, and of absolutely uniform texture. Suppose we now form the mental image of a luminous body like our sun placed exactly in the center of this ether. The agitation of the ether by the luminous body will now radiate from it in every direction, and thus the whole of the ether will be agitated from a single body at the center. And as the ether may be said to be infinitely large in extension and the luminous body as of finite dimensions, and, compared with the ether, it may be said to be infinitely small, so we can picture in our minds something infinitely small setting in motion something else that is infinitely great. It is just so with sin. It is against God, and therefore the effect of sin, or what sin is, must be measured by what God is. To sin against the love of God, is to sin against infinite Love; to sin against His holiness, is to sin against infinite Holiness:and so with every attribute of God, it is to sin against infinity, to sin against God. Thus to sin against God, though man is finite, his sin is infinite. And so all this talk about God being too good to punish finite sin with infinite punishment falls to the ground as void of truth.

But there are other ways of arriving at the same conclusions concerning eternal punishment. And when we say punishment we mean infliction of pain, and not cutting off or extinction after death, as some mean when they use the word punishment. When a person uses the word to mean something else than eternal punishment, they mean eternal cutting off, or eternal annihilation, or eternal unconsciousness, but not eternal punishment.

In Heb. 9:22 we are told that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission " (of sins).Now, if the blood of Christ is the only means by which sins are cleansed or remitted, it is evident that punishment cannot; and if punishment cannot remove sins, and as the soul lives forever, the punishment must last as long as sin remains-that is, forever. If we say that punishment remits sins, we deny Heb. 9:22. The blood of Christ and punishment cannot both cleanse from sin; it must be one or the other, and the word of God says that sins are cleansed by blood. Thus it is one of the two; and since Scripture nowhere says punishment cleanses from sin, it remains, as stated in Heb. 9:2:2, that the blood of Christ alone does. But there is another way that eternal punishment is seen to be a Scripture doctrine. In i Peter 2:24 we have it distinctly stated that Jesus bore the sins of believers in His own body on the tree. Now it is plain that if He bore them, they are gone; for surely none will say that He still bears them. And if sins are gone only when borne by Jesus on the cross, manifestly those who reject Him have their sins upon themselves, and must bear them. But to bear one's own sins is to bear them for eternity, seeing that they can be removed only when borne by Christ. So that we have the conclusion that one, bearing his own sins, must bear them for eternity, and punishment for sin must last as long as sin remains, that is, for eternity; for punishment for sin must be coextensive in duration with the presence of sin. Each succeeding instant finds the sins still there, and so also the punishment for sin.

Another important passage is found in John 8:ax. Those who reject the Son of God are said to be in a state that prevents them from going to Him in heaven. "Ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins," axe the solemn words of Jesus. To "die in sins " is a very important statement. Does the state or condition "in sins " cease at death ? The following considerations show that "in sins" continues after death. Where did Jesus speak of going ? To the Father. Did any at that time ever think of going to the Father as natural men, or before death ? No; they would go to Him after death, if at all. It was not simply death that would prevent them from going to be with Him, but the condition that death would reach them in-"in sins." And since it was only after death that they could hope to go to Him, it is clear that the reason they could not go to Him is that they would be in their sins after death. If death was the only thing that stood in their way from going to Him, why did He mention "in your sins" at all ? It was their sins that prevented them from going where He was going; hence it was "in sins" after death.

So with Hebrews 9:27. If "in sins" is only until death, how can there be judgment after death ? But since there is judgment after death, it remains that there is also a state of being "in sins" after death. And since there is nothing to alter that state or condition after death, punishment must be everlasting.

When does a believer go to be with Jesus ? After death. And why can such go to Him ? Because they have no sins upon them-they are not "in sins." They can therefore go to Him. Believers are not "in sins," but "in Christ," "in the Spirit."

When the believer obtains eternal life, a new quality is not added to the soul. Eternal life is from and in Christ, for He is Himself the eternal life. It is not a change in the nature of the soul. Hence, when a man dies, his soul continues to live whether he be a possessor of eternal life or not. But the unbeliever is "in sins." F. H. J.
'THE SON OF GOD, WHO LOVED ME."