II

HELL

Here we touch the awful part of our study. In Christ's great drama of
the Judgment those on the left hand are passing out into the darkness,
and we see them no more. In that darkness there seems no ray of hope.
So far as we can learn, it means irrevocable ruin and loss. In spite
of God's love and pain for them on Earth and in Hades, they seem at
last to have destroyed in themselves everything of good, and so placed
themselves beyond possibility of restoration for ever. The judgment
has clearly the ring of finality. There seems nothing more to be said.
And so, with pain in our hearts responding to the pain of the Father,
we are forced to leave them in the darkness and mystery in which
Scripture enshrouds them.

This is, I think, all that can justifiably be said. The reticence and
reserve of Scripture forbids any definite doctrine of Hell.

And this is all that would have needed to be said if men had kept to
that reticence and reserve of Scripture, and to all further
questionings contented themselves with the answer that the Judge of all
the earth will do right. But they have not so contented themselves.
It is hard to blame them. For beyond the main facts about the doom of
the impenitent there are here and there through the Bible many
tantalizing hints perplexing and difficult to reconcile with each
other, but very tempting to follow out. By emphasizing certain of
these and ignoring or dwelling more lightly on certain others which
seem to contradict them, men have formulated definite doctrines about
Hell, differing widely from each other but each with apparently strong
Scriptural support. This is only what may happen in any department of
study. The strict rule of evidence in any enquiry is that _all_ the
facts must be studied and that no theory shall be accepted as entirely
trustworthy while any of the evidence remains unaccounted for.

There are three theories which hold the ground to-day, each of them
seemingly with much evidence in its favour, but each of them seriously
unsatisfactory as conflicting with other evidence.

(1) The theory of Everlasting Torment--that every soul which has missed
of Christ shall be plunged into a Hell of torment and sin for ever and
ever, growing worse and worse and lower and lower through all the ages
of Eternity.

(2) The theory of Universalism--that in the ages of the far future
through the stern loving discipline of God all men shall at length be
save