42. Punishment Hereafter
Punishment Hereafter
DERIVATION OF WORD HELL.—On one side of Jerusalem was a deep gorge called the Valley of Hinnom. It was a place where cruel and idolatrous rites were celebrated. Human sacrifices were offered here. Drums were beaten to drown the cries of those murdered in sacrifice, hence the name Tophet. King Josiah defiled the place. It became the receptacle of all the filth and refuse of the city, and fires were kept constantly burning to consume it. The worm never failed of its prey there. This was the Jewish type of the place of the lost. The Scriptures refer to the place of future punishment as a “lake of fire,” a place of torment eternal, and this is all or nearly all revealed concerning it.
THERE IS A HELL.—A Christian was once called to visit an unhappy old man, who lay at death’s door. For several years he had been an avowed infidel. He had been accustomed to scoff at Scripture, but he principally exercised his profane wit in ridiculing the justice of God and the future punishment of the wicked. He died convinced but not converted. His death was truly awful. With his last quivering breath he exclaimed, “Now I know that there is a Hell, for I feel it.”
DOUBTERS ANSWERED.—A professor in one of the leading colleges went to the president with his doubts upon the subject of endless punishment, and confessed that he could “hardly believe the doctrine.” “I couldn’t believe it at all if the Bible did not teach it,” was the president’s reply. An aged minister once preached on the subject of eternal punishment. On the next day a young man visited the preacher and said: “I believe there is a small dispute between you and me, sir.” “Ah, what is it?” asked the minister. “Why,” replied the youth, “you say that the wicked will go into everlasting punishment, and I do not think that they will.” “Oh, if that is all,” answered the preacher, “there is no dispute between you and me. If you turn to Matthew 25:46, you will find that the dispute is between you and the lord Jesus Christ, and I advise you to go immediately and settle it with Him.”
FEARFUL COMPANY.—If you were to spend a whole life and never be separated from the vile and loathsome a single instant, what a gloom would spread over you! Hell is the place where there are many such, yea, where all the inhabitants are such. “Without are dogs, sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” Oh! tell us not of the fire and the worm and the blackness and darkness of Hell. There is Hell enough in this, that it is the common sewer of all that is abominable and abandoned and depraved, the one common cesspool where is gathered together everything in human character that is wretched, false, cruel and vile.
HOW FAR TO HELL.—As a Christian was on his way to a meeting, a young man who came out of an inn and mounted his horse, said: “Can you tell me how far it is to Hell?” The Christian paused, reflected for a moment and then replied: “It is not far off; you may come to it sooner than you expect.” The young man laughed, put spurs to his horse, and was soon out of sight. The Christian walked on and, as the road made a turn, he noticed a crowd of people before him. Coming up to the spot, he saw the young man to whom he had just before spoken the words of warning, lying a corpse upon the ground. His horse had become unmanageable and thrown his rider, who, falling on his head, was killed on the spot.