THE mind naturally shrinks from the thought of endless punishment, and it is to this feeling that the deniers of this doctrine make an easy appeal. But, in this matter, as in others, our feelings are not the judge of what is true and what is not. We must appeal to a less uncertain judge in a matter so fraught with eternal interest to responsible and accountable moral agents. And in doing so we carry our appeal to the One to whom all judgment has been committed by the Father, and would with reverence and a mind sobered by the solemnity of the subject, listen to what He says on the matter. It was He who sounded the note of warning as it never had been sounded before, and there is an added solemnity in His words when it is borne in mind that He shall act as supreme Judge in those transactions which culminate in the dread and irrevocable sentence so weighted with everlasting doom:—”Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The Lord never would have spoken as He did of the “fire that never shall be quenched,” and “the worm that dieth not,” if the punishment of the finally impenitent was not endless.
The perusal of the Redeemer’s words should convince any candid mind that He taught that for Impenitent men and devils there was endless punishment. We adduce the following words in proof of this:—”When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall He say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, and these shall go away into everlasting punishment” (Matt. xxv. 31-33, 41, 46). “If thy right hand offend thee cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out; it is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark viii. 36; Luke ix. 25). “The rich man died and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.” (Luke xvi. 22, 23). “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. x. 28). “The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. xiii. 41, 42). “Many will cry to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. vii. 22, 23). “He that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. Unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall never be forgiven” (Luke xii. 9, 10). “Woe unto you, ye blind guides. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matt. xxiii. 16, 33). “Woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born” (Matt. xxvi. 24). “The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and appoint him his portion with unbelievers” (Luke xii. 46). “He that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark xvi. 16). “Thou Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell” (Matt. xi. 23). “At the end of the world, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire” (Matt. xiii. 49, 50). “Then said Jesus again to them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whether I go ye cannot come” (John viii. 21). “The hour is coming in which all that are in their graves shall hear my voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John v. 28, 29). To these may be added the references in the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins to the shut door (Matt. xxv. 10), and to the “casting the unprofitable servant into outer darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. xxv. 19, 20), in the Parable of the Talents.
Do these words leave the impression on the mind of the reader that the future punishment of sin is temporary? In the words of Dr Shedd:—”Is it possible to believe that that holy and divine Person who uttered these fearful and unqualified warnings eighteen hundred years ago, respecting the destiny of wicked men and devils, knew that a time is coming when there will be no wicked men and devils in the universe of God, and no place of retributive torment? . . . Did He know that in the far-off future, a day will come when those tremendous scenes which He described—the gathering of all mankind, the separation of the evil from the good, the curse pronounced upon the former, and the blessing upon the latter—will be looked back upon by all mankind as ‘an unsubstantial pageant faded’ as a dream that is passed, and as a watch in the night?”
Hesitation to proclaim these awful truths on the plea of revulsion to our feelings brings us into the dangerous position of asserting that we are more compassionate than the Son of God, in whose heart there was infinite compassion to sinners. While the daring attempt to minimise the meaning or deny altogether the solemn import of the above-quoted utterances is rebellion, open and undisguised, against the Lord. The inexpressible solemnity of the subject is, and ought to be, felt by every true servant of Christ who feels that unless his hearers are regenerated that Christ’s warning so solemnly spoken was not uttered in vain. And believing what the Master said, they, too, shall warn with all tenderness, and direct the attention of their hearers to the Son of God, who delivers from the wrath that is coming.
The Remarkable Story of General Sir John Field’s Conversion.
SIR JOHN FIELD, whose conversion to God was a striking illustration of how the Lord works in a mysterious way for the accomplishment of His purposes, was one who attained to high rank in the Indian Army. As a young subaltern he went out to India, and rose step by step, and served with distinction under Lord Napier in the Magdala Expedition. Our main interest in General Field, however, is more in his being a good soldier of the Lord Jesus than in being a brave soldier of Queen Victoria. When he went out to India as a young man he made up his mind to have a good time. Anything savouring of religion was distasteful to him, and so prejudiced was he against godliness that he tells of the hatred he had to a young brother officer for no other reason than that he was a Christian. Lieut. Field’s conversion was remarkable by reason of the means God used and in its thoroughness. No one can read his life without being deeply impressed with the humbling views the Holy Spirit gave him of the total depravity of our fallen nature, and the absolute necessity of being born again if we are to escape the consequences of our sins. It was indirectly through the young Christian officer that Lieutenant Field was turned from the error of his ways. While he was out one morning at drill, a native orderly left a religious book belonging to this officer in his room. On returning from drill, Field, catching sight of the title of the book, threw it, in a temper, to the furthest end of the room, where it lay for many hours. At night he picked it up with anything but friendly feelings to the supposed sender, but he soon put it down again. Next day the orderly came, and with many salaams asked for the book which he had left by mistake in Lieutenant Field’s room—it had been meant for another gentleman. The unwelcome book was given back, but it had done its heaven-commissioned work. We are not told what truth in the book touched his conscience, but Lieutenant Field now gave up swearing, and turned to praying and reading his Bible. His reading of the Bible led him to see his ruined state, and his need of looking to Christ alone for salvation. Some time after deliverance came he writes:—”I am very thankful indeed to say that I now look forward to the arrival of the Lord’s Day with pleasure and impatience, and experience great gratification and much comfort in the performance of my devotions. I feel that, although still very awful, I am by God’s grace gradually progressing in the way which leads to eternal happiness; and the more I reflect upon the enormity of my sins the more deeply do I feel the great mercy of the Almighty in preserving me so long, and awaking my heart to a sense of my ingratitude and utter unworthiness, and most fervently do I pray that I may never relapse into any of my former crimes, but continue to walk in the paths of righteousness and truth.”
A book which he found very helpful—Caesar Malan’s “The True Cross,” fell into his hands about this time in a rather unexpected way. It had been sent to Ensign B., a very irreligious man in the regiment. On receiving it the Ensign said to himself:—“What does the man mean by sending me such a book as this? Just as if I should read it! But there is young Field; he is trying to be religious. I will give it to him.” Field was driven more and more to his Bible, as his fellow-officers were many of them not only irreligious, but immoral. His real concern for Ensign B. is beautifully set forth in his biography. He describes him as “a very profane, immoral character,” but he never gave up hopes that one day he might be turned to the Saviour, in whom he himself had found mercy. He followed him with his prayers, and often wrote serious letters to him, and at length, after sixteen years, he had the joy of hearing of this officer’s conversion.
He now began to conduct services for the soldiers, and the burden of his message may be gathered from what he says about the necessity of the New Birth:—“I find in general this most important truth is wholly lost sight of by the unconverted, and, therefore, whenever I commence to talk upon religion, I always insist upon this in the first place, as I think that, until a person is conscious of his lost and ruined state, there can be but little hope of profiting him in preaching Christ.”
In speaking of a period of spiritual declension in his experience, he says:—“The principal cause of it, I can trace, as is generally the case in all backslidings, to less frequency in prayer and reading and meditating upon the Word of God. I had allowed myself in my visits to relatives to fall into the error of thinking I should not suffer loss in faith by allowing their company to encroach upon the seasons of retirement which I had set apart for reading and prayer, supposing that, because I felt obliged to give myself up to them, God would preserve me from growing cold and lukewarm in spirit. Thus have I again been deceived by my wicked heart.”
The firm stand General Field took against dancing, card playing, and concerts showed that his Christianity had given him true moral courage. We quote from a letter of his in another place bearing on this subject.
Ere the end came he had real heart sorrow through the agnostic views adopted by a well-beloved son. His father had hoped that he would go to the mission field, and when it became clear that his son was turned aside, it filled the heart of the father with real sorrow, but he never gave up hopes but that his son would be converted, and he prayed earnestly for him. And in God’s time his prayers were answered, and it was this son who wrote his father’s life. In an introductory poem, he says:—
I had a father; when he was alive,
I did not greatly care his will to please;
I did not know his habit was to strive
For me, his son, upon his bended knees.
I did not know how fervently he longed,
In me deep-cherished hopes to realise;
Too late I see it now, the love I wronged,
Then in my reach, now out of reach, the prize.
Though they are lost, which might have once been won,
Rich opportunities I cast away;
I trust that even now he sees his son,
Tracking his footsteps to the land of day.
His deep concern for the salvation of his family is shown in one of his diary entries:—”God and Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and all spiritual things are so real to me, increasingly so as year after year passes, that it is dreadful to think that to my sons all is unreal at present, and that the tremendous guilt of rejecting the only Way, the Truth and Life, rests upon them. My prayer ascends unceasingly, and He heareth; and this gives hope and comfort.” Those who are parents and yearn for the salvation of their offspring will be able to enter into the meaning of these words.
General Field died on 16th April 1899, and was buried in Stoke Cemetery, Guildford.
General Sir John Field on Christians and Worldly Pleasures.
In a letter to his son, soon after the conversion of the latter, Sir John Field gave the following faithful advice, in which he makes reference to his own practice as an officer in India:—”I remember,” he writes, “how this subject pressed itself on my conscience in 1844, after my conversion. I had been very fond of gaieties, and it was a struggle to me to give them up. I had no one to consult, but I went to God’s Word to find out, and the Spirit soon made me feel that I must separate from my old life and give up my worldly pleasures, that I might walk in newness of life and please the Lord. I gave up at once balls, theatres, cards, and other things (such as concerts), and I have never been to any places of the kind nor touched cards since. I look back over these nearly fifty years and I thank God, who enabled me to act thus. I feel quite sure from Scripture and from observation that no true Christian can enter into such pleasures without injuring the spiritual life and grieving the Holy Spirit. After our marriage, your dear mother in India acted with me, and we refused all invitations to balls and gave our reason, i.e., that we found such things injured our walk with God. On one occasion, after dinner at Government House, dancing was introduced. I went to the hostess and asked her to excuse us, saying we did not go to dances, and we both left. Of course, this gave offence. I very sincerely hope that you will take a decided stand, and not go to worldly amusements.”
The Guest Chamber.
Oh! where is the guest chamber?
The Master asks to-day,
Oh! where is the guest chamber
That I therein may stay?
The Master came from glory
Poor souls from sin to win;
The world gave Him a chamber,
The stable of an Inn.
But where is your guest chamber?
The Master seeks the heart;
Oh! mine is like the world’s one,
Unclean in every part.
And does He seek that chamber
Unclean in every part?
Oh! hear His gracious word now,
My Son, give me thine heart.
Alas! my heart’s no chamber
That He should stay therein;
But yet I find I’m crying,
Oh! do thou enter in.
The Master is the Saviour
Whose blood doth cleanse from sin,
Whose love will make my chamber
All glorious within.