earth by the figure of raging and devouring fire, is common throughout all the Bible. See one other impressive instance: "Therefore wait you upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour out upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy." (Zeph. iii. 8.) But this fire is not endless punishment, for it was both to do its work on the earth, and to prove reformatory in its results. For the next words are, "For then (after consuming the earth with the fire of Divine jealousy) will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the Lord, to serve him with one consent."

No, all our readers must see, even our esteemed friend on the other side must see upon this review, and this explanation of Scripture by Scripture, that he has made discovery of no furnace of fire which is a synonym of endless, or even future punishment.

SECTION V.

The Lake of Fire and Brimstone, and the Smoke of Torment forever.

After closing his remarks on the burning of the tares, or casting those who were represented by the tares into a furnace of fire, Dr. Adams proceeds as follows:

"Not to burden the attention of the reader, there is one passage more which I will quote in connection with the preceding, for the

sake of briefly remarking upon them, before passing to the next topic.

The passage to which I refer is Rev. xiv. 9, 10, 11. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark on his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest, day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.'"

What is here called being "tormented with fire and brimstone," is elsewhere in this vision called being cast into a lake of fire and brimstone. "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." (Rev. xix. 20.) Again, " And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.

And death and hell where cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Chap. xx. vs. 10, 14, 15.)

We ask now, where is this lake of fire? There are thousands of theologians, good men, whose testimony we would not hesitate to receive in any matter whereof they know, who are ready to answer in

stanter, "Lo here! and lo there!" But we mest respectfully set aside their testimony in this case, and come to the Revelator himself. Where is this lake of fire? The Revelator answers, It is where the beast and the false prophet are. See his words just quoted as above: "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are." What beast? See him described in chap. xiii., coming up out of the sea, "having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns." This beast, with his seven heads, and ten horns and crowns, John's guiding angel explains to represent certain wicked kings and kingdoms of the earth, and the false prophet was his leading emissary. These were in the lake of fire; and of course the lake of fire was presented to the Revelator in vision as a metaphorical répresentation of the judgments in which those kings and kingdoms were and were to be involved in the earth. We do not undertake, and no sane man in our time will undertake, to explain and apply minutely and in detail all the visionary scenes and bold poetic figures of the book of Revelation. Dr. Adam Clarke sets off in its supremely ludicrous light the presumption of those self-conceited expositors who have come out successively with their theories of interpretation, clapping every symbol and every expression upon some particular person and event, each exploded shortly by actual events, and another to succeed him with equal presumption. And this great expounder confesses that he does "not understand the book." And

in general consistency with this modest concession, with but occasional and slight theological guess-work, he makes his commentary of this book to be mainly scientific and historical, to aid in a discovery of the derivation of the imagery. But notwithstanding we would not undertake to give a particular explanation and circumstantial application of all the minute parts of this book, it is not difficult, when we start upon the correct view of its date, to perceive the general subject of its main divisions, and the principles, legal and evangelical, which gleam out from its teachings. And more especially is it easy in various cases, as in the one before us, to determine decisively what certain portions of the book do not mean, thus exploding certain false assumptions with regard to their teachings. In this case we have proved positively by the Revelator himself, that he does not mean, by the lake of fire, a place of torment in the immortal world, but that he does mean to represent by it certain temporal judgments, involving in their retributive force earthly kings and kingdoms.

The visions of St. John, in these revelations, imaged to his mind much of the metaphorical scenery of the old prophets. How vividly Isaiah, (chap. xxxiv.) paints to our imagination a lake of fire and brimstone, though not using the name: "For my sword shall be bathed in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judg ment. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into

pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever."

This description, which pictures to your mind a whole country as burning pitch and brimstone, figures to your view a lake of fire and brimstone. That this describes a judgment in the earth all will admit, and yet it employs the very terms in reference to duration, forever and ever, which our friend regards as his strongest proof of future endless suffering connected with the lake of fire in Revelation. But we have shown conclusively that the latter, even as this in Isaiah, does not describe the scenes of eternity, but that it is definitely applied, by its own connections, to events on earth.*

We have spoken of the date of the book of Revelation, as affording aid to an underestanding of its general descriptions. The authors of the Common Version adopt the year 96, which makes it subsequent to the destruction of Jerusalem, and leaves no series of events which were then "shortly to come to pass," to which the progressive openings of the visions would well apply. But Dr. Clarke, whom we have spoken of as being in himself a historical library, says that the most respectable testimonies place the date of the book before the destruction of Jerusalem.

*Our full discussion of these terms expressing duration, we reserve to Chapter vi.