h be made new creatures incapable of sinning. This remark may
serve to introduce the final stage of the general argument, which I now
proceed to enter upon.

I have been endeavouring to show that the symbolic assertions in Rev.
xx. respecting "the lake of fire" and its "burning with brimstone," the
casting therein of the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, and
their being tormented "day and night for ever and ever," the judgment
of all the dead, small and great, according to their recorded deeds,
"the second death," and the casting into the lake of fire of "any one
not found written in the book of life," do not necessitate, as is
commonly thought, the conclusion that evil, which had a beginning,
fulfils no purpose and has no ending. As to this question the seer
gives, in Rev. xxi. 1-4, the following explicit revelation: "And I saw
a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth
passed away; and there is no more sea. And I saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, {93} coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne,
saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell
with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with
them, their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes;
and death shall be no more, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain: for the first things passed away." Now, it
seems hardly possible that the announcement of the termination of evil
could be made in terms more direct and more intelligible than these.
Hence, according to acknowledged principles of Biblical interpretation,
we must not attribute to the above-mentioned symbolic and less
intelligible passages any meaning inconsistent with that announcement.
The arguments I have adduced respecting the interpretation of the
figurative statements contained in the latter half of chap. xx. are
directed to showing that these figures do, in fact, admit of meanings
consistent with the gospel revelations given in chap. xxi. 1-4. It is
of so much importance, as regards the Scriptural doctrine of
immortality, to establish this point, that I propose now to supplement
the former arguments by additional considerations.

In the Book of Daniel (xii. 6, 7) we read of "a man clothed in linen,
who was upon the water of a river, and held up his right hand and his
left hand unto {94} heaven, and sware by