THE PERISHING SOUL; OR, The Scriptural Doctrine of the Destruction of Sinners. WITH A VIEW OF ANCIENT JEWISH OPINION AND CHRISTIAN BELIEF "WE are a sweet savour of Christ. in them that perish. . . . the savour of death unto death." 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16. "The one (i.e. the souls of the pure), appearing to be worthy of God, do not die at all; but the others are punished so long as God pleases both that they should be, and should be punished." JUSTIN MARTYR, Trypho, § 5. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IF it be true that the doctrine of endless suffering furnishes at once a most formidable obstacle to the reception of the Bible, and a subject of agonising perplexity to many of the most devout believers-while yet the Bible itself gives no sanction to the doctrine— then no apology is required for any sincere attempt to clear away from the pure page of Inspiration that dust which has unhappily gathered around it in connection with the present subject. And if, on the other hand, the very popular theory of a universal restoration to God and bliss be as really an error of the most unscriptural and pernicious kind, then on that ground also, it must be of the last importance to exhibit what the Scripture actually teaches in regard to the doom of the ungodly. As a compromise between these two extremes, the idea has lately been started that an existence spent in everlasting fire may, after all, be a state not of wretched antagonism, but of quiet submission, to the righteous Judge-a condition of dishonour rather than of suffering. The one antidote to all such |