The demand for preaching is such that we can see no possible way to excuse any man that can go. We have, therefore, rather concluded to _go while we can_.
When we shall go hence, we desire that any who may refer to us may see that while we said _go_ we also _went_.
We are perfectly aware that we could, in some respects, make the paper better to devote our entire attention to it; but, that we could, in every sense, give it the _spirit_ and _power_ that we can when we are in the field and among the people continually, we still hold in doubt. We desire to do all we possibly can for the cause, while it is to-day.
There is nothing about “the final annihilation of the wicked,” in the Bible, nor “the final annihilation” of anything. The talk about the “annihilation of the wicked,” no matter whether “final” or not, is mere outside talk, as nothing of the kind is found in Scripture. We can see why a man should want information about a country or a place where he intends or expects to go, but why any man should always be talking about a country or place to which he does not intend or expect to go, we never could see. There is one thing clear, and that is, that any term used in Scripture to describe or express the destiny of the wicked beyond the judgment, is such as to deter any man from desiring it, no matter whether figurative or literal. It is equally certain that no man will ever be saved by explaining to him all about the meaning of the terms applied to the destiny of the wicked, nor will a constant study of these terms, and talking about them, qualify any man for heaven.
Some of these terms are figurative and some of them are literal. In some instances it may be difficult to determine whether a term is literal or figurative, but in some it is not difficult. It is clear, however, that whatever terms are used, they all apply to the same things. Such a phrase as “beaten with many stripes,” we doubt not, is figurative, and so is “gnashing of teeth.” But “punishment” is literal, no matter in what it consists. No matter what term is applied to it, nor whether literal or figurative, the idea of “punishment” is always in it, always present. No matter _how_ they will be punished, what the means of punishment, or of what the punishment will consist, there is still the reality—the punishment. This is what the Lord calls “everlasting,”—“everlasting punishment.” See Matthew xxv. 46. “These shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal.” In the original we have the same word (_aionion_) for “eternal” and “everlasting.” In the same sentence the Lord uses the same word to express the duration of the punishment and the duration of the life of the righteous, and there is as much reason, and no more, for concluding that the “eternal life” shall terminate, as that the “everlasting punishment” of the wicked shall cease. At the same time that the righteous enter into life, the wicked “go away into everlasting punishment,” and the same word, in the same sentence, in the lips of our Lord, expresses the duration of both; and we have just as much respect for an expositor of Scripture that undertakes to prove that the state of glory shall cease to exist as for the expositor that undertakes to prove that the punishment shall cease to exist, no matter whether he be called Restorationist, Universalist, Soul-sleeper or what.