The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-01-23

better; and endless SHINING and suf-
fering is the very worst of all things
There is also a marked improve
ment in the New Testament; for there
instead of the twenty-three times
"hell," the revisers give us but thir-
teen; and they allow us there the
choice between their rendering and
the original words which they put in
the margin.
Is not that an evidence of linger-
ing doubt in the minds of these most
learned men whether in the Scripture
there is actually the name of place
of interminable suffering? and that it
was not quite clear to them that Ge-
henna in the days of Christ had come
to mean the same as the word hell
now means in popular acceptation ?
Surely, if such place really exists,
awful in its torment, and endless in
its duration, men should have fair
warning, and a revelation from God
the Father of such fate for his chill
dren should be explicit beyond all
misunderstanding, and expressed in
no ambiguous phrase about which
the most learned hesitate.
Another matter ofgreat Importance
is, that the word Everlasting" as the
representative of the Greek oionios
never occurs in the revision of the
New Testament. The word eternal"
always performs that duty; while the
word everlasting is found but twice,
and then as the translation of the
Greek 0idioS.
Two facts stand out in clearness
here: Q) The revisers did not con-
slider oionios and dGdios as equiva-
lent terms, and that the latter word
is properly everlasting, while aionios
is not. (2) That they did not consider
the words eternal and everlasting as
synonymous, if their usage is any
evidence in the case. A fact SO
marked must have its meaning. If,
then, the word everlasting, which
is unquestionably time word,
and properly used to denote dura
ton without end, is never used by
them as rendering of aionios, is
not that saying plainly enough that
aiOniOs is not such a wordG The
question then arises, what other sense
do they mean to express by the word
eternal as the true representative of
aioniOs?
The Standard Dictionary informs
us that, "Timeless carries, perhaps,
the fullest idea of eternal, as above
and beyond time, and not to be meas
ured by it," and is not this the idea
that our revisers would most likely
have us understand from the word
eternal?
This is surely consistent with the
idea of eternal life" as found in the
New Testament; which is life that
is above time, and not to be measured
by it. 1t is the life of the gospel
kingdom which has neither space nor
time relations; and is, as defined by
our Lord himself, the knowledge of
God and Jesus whom he sent. Ono.
xvii. 3 st. John also tells us that ''to
know him that is true, and to be in
him that is true is eternal life" Ono.
v.20) This knowledge is not of the
head simply, but of the heart. "He
that liveth is born of God, and know
eth God" Il. Jno. iv.7.) To define this
life by eternal is to give it a worthy
conception; to call it everlasting is
beggarly indeed.
Put eternal punishment" in the
same category, and we shall net
stumble at it as merely declaration
of everlasting suffering, but spiritual
and divine correction. Punishment
neither in localized hell, nor during
endless time; eternal as an experience
of the soul Independent of time or its
conditions. As Thomas Erskine says,
81 believe as you do that eternity has
nothing to do with duration. So
eternal life is Gods own life; it is es-
sential life; and eternal punishment
belonging to the nature of sin. and
not coming from outward causes"
All of which being true, eternal
punishment is not everlasting pun
ishment, the Revised Version being
authority in the premises. J.H.
TABLE GROVE. Ill.