with sheol. The same is true of hades in the New Testament. See Matt. 16 18. We have seen, too, that the keys, by which these gates were opened, are mentioned in connection with sheol. This is also true of hades. See Rev. 1: 18. Again, the inmates of sheol are said to be the dead, the slain. So are the inmates of hades. See Rev. 20: 13. Once more; sheol is used as an emblem of degradation, moral impurity, punishment, etc. So, also, is hades. See Matt. 11: 23; Luke 10: 15, and 16: 23.

If it be asked here "How could the quiet and peaceful grave be made an emblem of misery?" I answer, we have before stated that the grave is a place of physical impurity, corruption and defilement. Hence it is a very appropriate emblem of moral depravity and degradation. And, as misery is the constant and invariable attendant of moral impurity, hence the idea of misery is associated with it. Besides, death precedes, the grave follows in quick succession. The act of dying is generally attended with pain; hence the agonies of dying are associated with the grave. In the common English ver sion of the Scriptures the grave is used as the emblem of cruelty. See Solomon's Song 8: 6, "Jealousy is cruel as the grave."

10. Hades, like sheol, is destined to be destroyed. 1 Co. 15: 55, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave (hades), where is thy victory?" If the reader will examine the connection of this text he will see that Paul was treating upon the subject of the literal resurrection of the dead. He shows that all mankind will be raised from the state of death, be changed from "mortal to immortality," from "corruption to incorruption," from "weakness to power," from "natural to spiritual," from "dishonor to glory," and that "death shall be swallowed up in VICTORY." Then he says the triumphant exclamation shall be made, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" Paul undoubtedly had his eye on the passage which we have quoted from Hosea 13: 14, “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave (sheol), I will be thy destruction." What is signified by one of these passages is also signified by the other; and hence hades and sheol, in whatever way these terms may be understood, are destined to be destroyed.

11. The last we hear about hades in the New Testament it was "cast into the lake of fire." Rev. 20: 14, " And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." If the reader will examine the chapter of this book on the lake of fire, he will see that this lake of

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fire was in this world, and that the phrase lake of fire" is used in the book of Revelation to signify total and entire destruction. To cast persons into the lake of fire, was to completely destroy them from off the earth. To cast death and hades, the grave or hell, into the lake of fire, was to completely destroy them, so that they would never more exist. For no one pretends that either death or the grave will exist in another world. But this language is highly figurative. Death, and the state of mortality, may be said to have been destroyed when Christ burst the bands of death, rose triumphant from the grave, and brought life and immortality to light Hence Paul, speaking of Christ, says, "Who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." The believers in this gospel can look forward prospectively to the time when death and the grave shall be destroyed, and be no more forever.

12. Dr. Doddridge, on Rev. 1: 18, and Parkhurst, who quotes from Lord King's History of the Creed, chapter 4, says: "Hadees, or Haidees (as it is spelt in Homer or Hesiod), obscure, dark, invisible, from a, negation, and idein, to see. The invisible receptacle or mansion of the dead in general. Our English, or rather our Saxon, word hell, in its original signification (though it is now understood in a more limited sense), exactly answers to the Greek word hades, and denotes a concealed or unseen place; and this sense of the word is still retained in the eastern, and especially in the western counties of England; to hele over a thing, is to cover it." Dr. Campbell says: "As to the word hades, which occurs in eleven places of the New Testament, and is rendered hell in all except one, where it is translated grave, it is quite common in classical authors, and frequently used by the Seventy, in the translation of the Old Testament. In my judgment, it ought never, in Scripture, to be rendered hell, at least in the sense wherein that word is universally understood by Christians. The word hell, in its primitive signification, denoted only what was secret or concealed." - Prelim. Dis. 6, part 2. Dr. Hammond says: Among profane writers, it is clear that the word (hades) signifies not the place of the damned, no, nor any kind of place, either common to both or proper to either bliss or woe, but only the state of the dead.". - Annot. in loc. Donnegan defines this word thus: "Invisible; not manifest, concealed; dark, uncertain.". Donnegan's Lexicon, p. 19. Dr

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Adain Clarke says: "The word hell, used in the common translation, conveys now an improper meaning of the original word; because hell is only used to signify the place of the damned. But, as the word hell comes from the Anglo-Saxon helan, to cover, or hide, hence the tiling or slating of a house is called, in some parts of England (particularly Cornwall), heling, to this day; and the covers of books (in Lancashire), by the same name, so the literal import of the original word hades was formerly well expressed by it.". -Com. in loc. Concessions such as these, from such men, ought to satisfy every candid man that the words sheol and hades have been very generally and very greatly misunderstood. At the close of our remarks on Gehenna the reader will find some additional facts on this subject.

TARTAROS.

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"This word means that prison of the heathen, hades, in which they supposed that tyrants and other wicked beings were tormented in various modes. The word does not occur in the Bible. But in 2 Peter 2: 4, a verb, derived from this word, is used, and is rendered cast down to hell,'- tartaroosas, literally, tartarused them. It is evidently a figure, used to denote severe punishment, imprisonment in a dark place." Tartaros was one of the departments of hades; and as we have shown that hades itself is to be destroyed, of course tartaros must cease to exist also. Hence it cannot be a place of endless misery. For an explanation of 2 Peter 2: 4, see our remarks on Jude 1: 6. It is there shown that the angels who are said to have been tartarused were human messengers, and that the punishment which was inflicted on them was of a temporal nature. As the word tartaroosas occurs but once

in the Bible, no further remarks on it are necessary. For if sheol, hades nor Gehenna, either of them, signify a place of endless misery, of course it will not be pretended that tartaroosas signifies such a place.

GEHENNA. Professor Stuart, of Andover College, says of this word : "The word Gehenna is derived, as all agree, from the Hebrew words Gee Hennom." To this, and in the opinion that this word signifies the valley of Hinnom, a place, near Jerusalem, where a continual fire was kept burning, to destroy the filth and dirt of that city, the following writers are all agreed: Acam

Clarke, Parkhurst, Wynne, Wakefield, Macknight, Heylin, Roser muller, and others. Indeed, this fact is not disputed by a single respectable biblical critic. Its meaning, in the New Testament, must, therefore, be determined by its signification in the Old. In order that the reader may see the scripture usage of it in the Old Testament, we will give every passage from that book where it

occurs.

Josh 15 8. And the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the south side of the Jebusite; the same is Jerusalem: and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward.

2 Kings 23 10. And he (Josiah) defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

2 Chron. 28: 3. Moreover, he (Ahaz) burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen.

Jer. 7: 31, 32. And they (the children of Judah) have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place.

Jer. 19: 2. And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee.

Verse 6. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter.

From the above passages the following facts are perfectly obvious; 1. The valley of Hinnom was one of the landmarks, or boundaries, of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah. 2. If the reader will consult Lev. 18: 21, and 20: 2, he will learn that the idol god Moloch was set up in this valley, and that the Jews sacrificed their sons and their daughters to him. Professor Stuart says: "If we may credit the Rabbins, the head of the idol was like that of an ox, while the rest of its body resembled that of a man. It was hollow within; and, being heated by fire, children were laid in its arms, and were there literally roasted alive." We cannot wonder, then, at the severe terms in which the worship of Moloch is everywhere denounced in the Scriptures. 3. This valley was called Tophet, as Stuart says, "from Toph, to vomit with loathing; " or, as Schleusner says, "from Toph, a drum; because the administrators of these horrible rites beat drums, lest the cries and shrieks of the infants

who were burned should be heard by the assembly;" or, as Adam Clarke says, "from tophet, the fire-stove, in which some suppose they burnt their children alive to the idol Moloch." 4. The good king Josiah abolished these nefarious practices, and polluted the place where they had been committed. Schleusner says: "After this, they (the Jews) held the place in such abomination, it is said, that they cast into it all kinds of filth, together with the carcasses of beasts, and the unburied bodies of criminals who had been executed. Continual fires were necessary, in order to consume these, lest the putrefaction should infect the air; and there were always worms feeding on the remaining relics." Stuart says, Josiah polluted this by causing the filth of the city of Jerusalem to be carried there; and, he adds, "It would seem that the custom of desecrating this place, thus happily begun, was continued in after ages, down to the period when our Saviour was on earth. Perpetual fires were kept up, in order to consume the offal which was deposited there. And as the same offal would breed worms (for so all putrefying meat of course does), hence came the expression, Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." 5. This valley is made an emblem of that terrible temporal calamity which came on the Jewish nation in the destruction of their city and temple.

This valley lay south of Jerusalem, or on the south and west of Mount Sion, and was very deep, so that the city was inaccessible in that part. Sometimes it was made the place of execution, and the inanner of executing criminals there was this: After the malefactor was condemned by the Sanhedrim (a Jewish council, composed of seventy-two persons, six from each of the twelve tribes of the Jews), they set him in a dung-hill up to his knees, and put a towel about his neck, and one pulled one way, and another the opposite, till they forced him to open his mouth. They then poured boiling lead into his mouth, which went down into his belly, and so burnt his bowels. After destroying the life of the unfortunate being in this manner, they then cast his body into the fire, which burned without cessation in that horrid place of defilement and death. Sometimes the criminal was cast alive into this fire, and his life and body destroyed in this manner.

We have seen that this place was made an emblem of the judg ment, which came on the Jewish nation in the destruction of their city and temple. Now, let it be borne in mind that Jesus and his