Tracts for Thoughtful Christians, by the Author of the Destiny of the Human Race (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1866 edition. Excerpt: ...passages which tell us, in the plainest possible terms, that the final lot of the irreclaimably wicked is hell," the "lake of fire," or, as it is elsewhere called, "the second death;" or those which speak of men who shall be punished with "everlasting destruction;" and yet to maintain that, finally, "all, both small and great, shall find a refuge in the bosom of the Universal Parent, to repose, or be quickened into higher life in the ages to come." I have used the word "destruction," because this is a very different thing from eternal sin and misery. On the supposition that the irreclaimably wicked do thus utterly perish, it may still be truly maintained--however fearful the cost--that "the wickedness of the wicked has come to an end" (Psa. vii. 9), --that God has "put out their name for ever and ever" (Psa. ix. 5); but if, on the contrary, they are sustained in eternal existence, ever sinning and ever suffering, such language seems at least to be singularly inappropriate. The question, however, now under consideration is not whether what is termed "eternal punishment" means everlasting life in torment, or whether it is literally a "second death" in the "lake of fire," but whether any TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 7 d priori reason against "restoration," extended or otherwise, can be found in the Book of God. Some will, of course, say that it is needless on such a subject to inquire into the general tone and tenor of Scripture, since its express declarations forbid us for a single moment to cherish any such expectation. To this I can only reply, that if such be indeed the fact, --if any plain statements of Scripture do forbid hope in...