The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1910-08-29
UnquenchabIe Flre

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ed" BE said the same in the follow
ing verses respecting the foot and the
eye. Was he speaking literally or tlg-
uratlvely? Does any sane person sup
pose today. that Jesus advised literal
cutting OF OF hand or a foot or the
plucklng out Of an eye? Assurcdly
not. And the person who would fol-
low his counsel in that way would be
considered unbalanced in mind. We
all recognize what he did mean, name.
y, that IL any who desired to have
eternal life found that they had him
ORANGES of appetite or pleasure or
what not. as dear to them as an eye,
foot, hand, these precious, but disqual.
flying sins or wrong-doings, should be
put away-no matter how precious
they were-no matter how highly es-
teemed. By way of contrast, the Mas
ter suggested That IL the retaining of
these things would hinder them from
entering into life they could not af-
ford to retain them-that even IL they
were to carry the figure further and
suppose that In the future life they
would be deprived to the extent of be-
ing MANNED to MI eternity 1t still
would be preferable to them to prpc-
tice the self-denial now and to enter
into life.
Be 1t noted that the reward here In.
dlcated is in the entering into life. and
the intimation is that those who fail
will not have life Mt all-that they will
fail to attain life: that they will have
no eternal life. either in pain or in
pleasure. Let us examine our text
further and see this.
eehenna Typed tho Second Death.
The word hell In our text Is from the
Greek word gchcnnd. which, In turn,
was corruption of the Hebrew word
peh-hinnon. which signifies railcy OF
death. There are two other words in
the New Testament Greek trlnslatcd
hell in our common version. One of
these. tartarus. has no reference to hu-
manity whatever, but merely signifies
our earth's atmosphere-tllc place
where Satan and the fallen angels are
restrained in chains of darkness III
Peter III. ~. The other Greek word
rendered he'll in the New Testament is
hddcS. which corresponds exactly to
the word rendered he'll in tile Old les.
lament. namely shcol. And all scholars
know that both of these words signify
the same thing. They are used inter.
changcably in the Scriptures to dcsIs-
nate the state or condition OF DEATH
the tomb. No person. of even slight
education, would for moment ut
tempt to claim that eternal torment is
taught by shcol, hades or tdriarus. The
great stress of all who teach eternal
torment falls. therefore. upon the word
hell found in our text-in the original
Greek, 0chcnna.
What We have to say respecting 1t
will undoubtedly be news to but few
of this congregation. But since this
sermon will be reported in more than
seven hundred newspapers of the lard.
our explanation will probably cventu-
ally reach ten million people. to whom
the Truth on the subject will be new.
What we have to say is not new to cd
ucated ministers. however. and why,
as pastors, they have kept the sheep
of their flock in the dark on the sub.
jcct is for them to explain. They Ger.
tainly cannot plead Ignorance At very
most they can apologize that they
hoped that the misunderstanding would
do more good than the truth. They
seem to forget entirely that this terri
BILE misunderstanding is not only
wrecking the faith Of thousands, but
dishonoring our Crcntor-basplcminG
his holy name. his holy character, by
mlsreprcscnting it and the Divine
Plan.
A Valley Outside Jerusalem.
l wish that those of you who have
modern Bibles with maps at the back
would turn to the map of the City of
Jerusalem and there notice on the
Southwest side of the City, Just out.
side the wall, the Valley of Hlnnom.
That is the Valley that in brief was
called Geh.hinnon. the Greek of which
Is gehenna. All of our Lords uses of
the word gchenna stand related to
that Valley. For the sake Of my lar
ger congregation 1t will bc worth while
for US TO take glance backward Mt
the history of that Valley during many
centuries before Jesus day.
The first mention of this Valley in
the Bible is found in Joshua (xv, 81,
where 1t is given us one of the boun.
daries of the tribe of Judah, accord
ing to the lot cast by Joshua in the