เ ready inflicted. Peter says, 2 Epistle 2: 5, God spared not the old world, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and burned up the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, and condemned them with an overthrow, leaving them as an example to those that should afterwards live ungodly." The pattern then of the manner in which the wicked will be punished is utter destruction. We have no objection to the calling this destruction 'eternal,' the cities will never be restored; but the fire does not continue to burn. Neither will the aionion, fires, that will be lighted when Christ comes, last long, for they will soon utterly consume their fuel. We sup pose we have given the sense of the texts quoted, although some of them may mean that the results of these judgments will be perpetual; there will be no reversal, no future resurrection to those that are destroyed by aionion fires. The Syriac reads, that the cities of So dom and Gomorrha "are made a demonstration to the wicked who should come after them." The actual manner of the destruction is set forth in the pattern; all can perceive that they are entirely destroyed; but how could everlasting torments" be an actual demonstration, seeing that there would never be a period when the sentence was fully executed? 2 Thess. 1: 6, "Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those that afflict you; and those who are afflicted will he re-enliven with us at the mani. festation [Syriac] of our Lord Jesus from heaven with his mighty angels; inflicting punishment with flaming. fire, on those who know not God, and on those who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will suffer punishment, even olethron aionion, the destruction per taining to the age, from [or issuing from] the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power....in that day." Common version, "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord." Mat. 25 46, "And these apeleusontai will go eis kolasin aionion to the cutting off [that takes place] at the age; but the righteous [will go] eis zoen aionion, to life at the age." Common version, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous [shall go away] into life eternal." The word apeleusontai applies to both members of the antithesis, and might be trans lated will come, for strange to say, th word means either. Will come would seem more applicable to the righteous, but then we must say that the wicked will come to the cutting off. Kolasin is a noun from the verb kcluso, the radical meaning of which is to cut off. Gen. 8: 2, " And the rain from heaven was cut off."Surely the rain was not "punished." It is used likewise in the sense of pruning, lopping off superfluous branches. It has as a secondary meaning to restrain. The Greeks write, "The charioteer kolaso, restrains his fiery steeds." Now as the cutting off, or even restraining, when applied to men is often a punishment, so a third and metaphorical use of the word may be punishment; though we think punishment, as a meaning of the word kolaso, would never have found its way into the Greek Lexicons, had it not been first used by our translators. The word in some of its forms, occurs Acts 4: 21, "Finding nothing how they might cut them off." They had already punished them, by putting them in hold, but they feared to cut them off, because of the people. 2 Pet. 2:9, "The Lord knoweth how....to reserve the unjust unto a day of judgment to be cut off," as were the antediluvians and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. 1 John 4: 18, "In love there is no fear, therefore perfect love casteth off fear; because fear (echei) is to be (kolasin) cut off." Echei often bears the sense of to be. These are all the places where kolaso occurs in the N. T., and there exists not the slightest necessity, in any case, of departing from its radical meaning. Mat. 25: 46, is considered the strongest text in the Bible in favor of "eternal torments.” But after seeing a correct and literal translation, we cannot perceive how even the most reckless can extract even an inference from it to favor torture of any kind. But the text that we have placed in juxtaposition with it, declares that there will be punishment by flaming fire which is to end in the destruction of the wicked "in that day,' ," "when the Son of Man shall come in his glory." Professor Stuart says, "I take it to be a rule of construing all antithetic forms of expression, that where you can perceive the force of one side of the antithesis, you do of course come to a knowledge of the force of the other side." Very well. Will the reader observe the points of oppost on Christ sitteth upon the throne and the righteous and the wicked are gathered before him. The righteous are invited to the inheritance of a kingdoin that will have no end, which inheritance implies the liv ing throughout the reign of Christ, while the wicked are driven into a fire that will not go out till it has utterly consumed its fuel, and so the wicked will be utterly consumed. And now for the two sides of the antithesis. | The righteous will go to life aionion: the cutting off onion: The only points opposed are, "The righteous," "The wicked," "Life," and "The cutting off": the other parts are exactly the same. We understand the meaning of the first member of the sentence so far as the opposition is concerned. Now as life means conscious exis tence, and the other must be its opposite, so the other must mean "the cutting off" from life, or death, the privation of life, the extermination of being; which many other Scriptures declare will take place when Christ comes. It matters not how aionion may be construed, as it only refers to the age or period of the manifestation of Christ, the day of the Lord, "that shall burn as an oven and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the DAY that cometh shall burn them UP, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." We have endeavored, as was duty, to set this text in the clearest light, to show that not a vestige of an argu ment can be predicated upon it to sustain "eternal tor ments." But to do this effectually there is no need to depart from the common translation. Let 'life,' and 'punishment,' and 'everlasting,' have their proper English meanings, notwithstanding that by this we spoil the antithesis; and then it follows that the punishment will be everlasting-which we readily concede will be the case and now we have to determine the nature of the punishment, which our text in 2 Thess. 1: 6, declares to be "everlasting DESTRUCTION.' A destruction from which there will be no restoration, which will continue for ever, is properly called an everlasting destruction.But to sustain a favorite hypotheses some will contend that punishment implies conscious existence and that death is no punishment. Suppose your son is condemn. ed for some delinquency, to one year's imprisonment and hard labor, as a punishment therefor; will you petition the governor to mitigate his punishment by giving an order for his immediate execution? Will ye arrest the murderer, when upon your hypothesis, he has committed no injury to his victim? Be candid row and confess that the punishment of death is the capital punishment. "I will punish her children with death. There are two texts in the O. T. that are sometimes quoted: Dan. 12: 2, "And many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; these to le oulom, perpetual life, and those to reproach and perpetual abhorrence." As at the period here alluded to, the righteous only will be raised, and as the text says nothing about the suffering or even the resurrection of the wicked, so the text is not in point. Isa. 33: 14, "Who can dwell with everlasting burnings?" Answer; none: for they would burn them up. There is not a single case of the occurrence of the word cionios, when it does not relate to the age of Christ, but what absolutely requires a limited meaning. The reader will find upon inspection that more than sixty times aionions has reference to the age of Christ. And Professor Stuart himself confesses that, "The word aionios, therefore, is, in the Septuagint, less strictly ap plied to indefinite time, an unlimited period, than it is in the N. T. Just the same is the case with aion, as we have already seen." Add to this confession the fact, that the sample of these "everlasting burnings" and unquenchable fires," that have already been inflicted upon Sodom and Gomorrha, and upon Edom, and their wicked inhabitants, have long since ceased: See Isa. 66 : 24; 34:8; 1: 28; 10: 16, 17; Ezk. 20: 47; compare the prophecy, 2 Kings 22: 17, with its accomplishment, 25:9; Mat: 3:10, 12; 13: 30; and we shall readily perceive that no inference can be sustained, that is drawn from the use of the word aion or aionios, to favor the immortality of the wicked. But the whole Scriptures harmonize in the declaration that man is mortal, and that God has offered us incorruptible life through Jesus "hrist, and bids us SEEK FOR" it. THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. BY GEORGE STORRS. THIS parable has been insisted upon as proof of the conscious state of men in death, and of eternal torments to the wicked; but we believe it affords no evidence of either. If it could be demonstrated to be a history, and not a parable, it would not prove that wicked men are to be endlessly tormented; because the scene is laid immediately after death and before the judgment; hence, is not the punishment which follows judgment: that punishment may be death or literal annihilation for all this case teaches. But the whole is a parable; and this fact is so notorious that scarcely any commentator, or any intelligent writer, pretends to question it. To call it a "literal history," in these days, is to manifest fixed bigotry, profound ignorance, or willful opposition to clearly settled truth. We shall therefore occupy no space in proving it a parable, but proceed at once to its exposition. Parables are never given to teach doctrine, but to illustrate some truth already partially known or about to be announced; and no parable is ever to be interpreted on the principle that every item contained in it was designed to have an application. Bishop Lowth says-"Parable is that kind of allegory which consists of a continued narration of fictitious or accommodated events applied to the illustration of some important truth."The scope and design of a parable is all we need to concern ourselves about; and to attempt a particular application of every expression in it is to enter the field of speculation where the most fanciful will be the most successful in turning off eyes from the real design of him who spake the parable. The key to a parable is either in the parable itself or in the discourse connected with it. In the case before us, it is in the context. The scope, or design of the parable was to teach the effect to follow upon two classes of men by a change from the Mosaic, or Law-dispensation to the Christian, or Gospel dispensation. This fact is clearly set forth in the 17th verse, which is the key to the parable, and unlocks it perfectly. That verse reads thus-"The law and the prophets were" [preached] 'until |