ow be directed.

In xxi. 8 we have, "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the
abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all lies, shall have their part in the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." If we
give to this symbolism, as consistency requires, {101} an
interpretation analogous to that applied to Rev. xx. 10, we shall
conclude that sinners of all classes will eventually have no cognizable
existence, transgression being brought to an end by the effect of the
general judgment and the pains of the second death. This may explain
why it is added, "which is the second death." It is worthy of remark
that "all lies" are said to have their part in "the lake" although the
casting of lies into a lake is objectively an impossibility. But this
variation of the designation ("lies" being put for "liars") may be
intended to signify generally that all transgression disappears,
because transgressors cease to be cognizable _as transgressors_.

There is another thing to be noticed respecting the same passage: it
contains no such clause as, "They shall be tormented day and night to
the ages of ages," which occurs at the end of Rev. xx. 10. This
omission may be accounted for on the principle stated in p. 96,
according to which expressions involving time are not applicable to the
condition of things in the new creation, in which time exists no more.

I take the occasion to remark here that the above-cited clause appears
to be the only passage in the Apocalypse which asserts the perpetuity
of _personal_ experience of torment, as distinct from the perpetuity of
its effect; also that the personal subject of the verb
_basanisthesontia_, according to grammatical rules, would be the devil,
the beast, and the {102} false prophet, each of which is represented as
personal, and endowed with volition and power. But these, as I have
maintained in p. 61, are the powers which, according to the law of
opposites, are antagonist to God the Father, the Holy Ghost, and the
Son of God; and the assertion that they are tormented for ever and ever
may be taken to mean, according to the principle of interpretation
explained in p. 97, that they exist _necessarily_, but only as they
exist, when subdued, in the contempt and hatred in which they are held
by those who have felt their power and have overcome it, this spiritual
effect being a condition of immortality. (See end of p. 61.)