Or it may be that he has no
definite idea. In that case, would it not be manly and candid to say
that he does not know?
I believe that is the position of very many. They are hovering between
the idea of extinction and that of torment. They try to believe in
torment; they have been inoculated with that idea; they think, or are
afraid, that it is Scriptural; but they recoil from any hearty reception
of it. They have not got the length as yet of the idea of final
salvation. But some day that truth may flash upon their souls like a
gleam of heaven's own sunlight.
To come back to our author. He tries to give us a due incentive to awake
from our apathy, and enter on a Missionary Crusade with a spirit of
self-denial and zeal never yet known. He quotes two passages, which he
presents as a very strong incentive. But neither of these passages has
any force, on the theory either of extinction or of torment. Otherwise,
they are pregnant with eternal hope. Listen: "He shall see of the
travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." Again: "He, after He had
offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of
God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool."
Neither of those passages can come true on the basis either of
extinction or of endless torment.
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