Now, if there is such a place God must have created it; and if Moses knew that he had created such a place, why should he overlook so important a fact in his history of the creation?

2. God never informed mankind that he had created such a place. He forewarned Adam and Eve of the consequences of partaking of the forbidden fruit. He forewarned the Jews of the consequences of departing from the law of the Lord; and he has communicated various kinds of information to the children of men. But he has nowhere in the Bible informed any man that he had created an endless hell.

3. It is nowhere said in the Old Testament that sheol is a place of endless misery. We have seen that the word sheol occurs sixtyfour times. It was used by Moses, Jacob, Samuel, Ezra, Job, David, and others; but not one of these persons ever intimated that they understood by it a place of endless misery.

4. God never informed the Jewish people that sheol signified a place of endless misery. In addressing that people he frequently uses the word sheol, but always speaks of it as something which existed in this world.

5. Endless punishment in sheol is not annexed as a penalty to any known law of God. God gave to the Jewish people various laws and institutions, and he annexed penalties to those laws; but we shall search in vain to find a law to which is annexed the penalty of endless misery in sheol, or anywhere else.

6. God never threatened the Jewish people with punishment in sheol after death. He frequently threatened them with punishment, and with tremendous and awful judgments; but in no single instance did his threatenings extend beyond death.

7. The Jews were never threatened with punishment in sheol after death by any of their prophets, priests or kings. If the reader thinks we are mistaken, let him examine the Old Testament, and see if he can find an instance of this kind.

S. No person, of whom we have any account in the Old Testament, old or young, rich or poor, bond or free, holy or unholy, ever expressed any fears of suffering misery in sheol after death.

9. No Jew, of whom we have any account in the Bible, ever prayed to be saved from punishment in sheol.

10. It is never said, in the Old Testament, of any person who had died, whether he died a natural death, or was publicly exe

cuted for his crimes, or was cut off by the judgments of God, or whether he was a good or a bad man, that he had gone to a place of endless misery.

11. When persons died, among the Jews, their surviving relatives and friends never expressed any fears that they had gone to a place of misery. If they knew of any such place, they certainly felt very differently about it from what people do in our day.

12. The Jews never express themselves as if they expected to be separated from their friends after death. Now, if they believed that heaven was a place of endless happiness for some, and sheol a place of endless misery for others, how is this fact to be accounted for? We see no way of accounting for this fact only on the suppo. sition that they had no knowledge of the existence of a place of endless misery.

13. Not one of the Old Testament writers has ever connected the words everlasting, eternal, forever, endless, &c., with sheol. We nowhere read of an everlasting sheol, of an eternal sheol, of an endless sheol, or of a sheol that shall endure forever.

14. Cruden, in his Concordance, admits that sheol "most commonly signifies the grave, or the place or state of the dead." Seo Cruden's Concord., art. Hell. And George Campbell, D.D., F.R.S., Edinburgh, and Principal of the Marischal College, Aberdeen, a divine of the Presbyterian church, says that sheol "signifies the state of the dead in general, without regard to the goodness or badness of the persons, their happiness or misery."- See Prel.

HADES.

- This word occurs in the New Testament eleven times. It is rendered ten times hell, and once grave. That it does not signify a place of endless misery, is proved by the following facts:

1. In the translation of the Old Testament into Greek, by the Seventy, they rendered the Hebrew sheol by the Greek word hades. Hence, sheol in Hebrew, and hades in Greek, as they occur in the Scriptures, are synonymous terms. And, as our Lord and his disciples always quoted from the version of the Seventy, or Septuagint Version, they would, of course, use words and terms and phrases in accordance with their usage there; and hence sheol in the Old Testament, and hades in the New, signify precisely the same thing

:

Now, as we have shown that the word sheol does not signify a place of endless misery in the Old Testament, so neither can the word nades signify such a place in the New.

2. The first time hades occurs in the New Testament, it is used in reference to the city of Capernaum; of which city our Lord says, it "shall be brought down to hell." See Matt. 11: 23. And in Luke 10: 15, he says it "shall be thrust down to hell." Now, no one will pretend that the city of Capernaum was to be thrust into a place of endless misery in a future world. The word hades is used here in a figurative sense, to denote desolation and destruction. Adam Clarke says, "The word here means a state of the utmost woe, and ruin, and desolation, to which these impenitent cities should be reduced. This prediction of our Lord was literally fulfilled; for, in the wars between the Romans and the Jews, these cities were totally destroyed; so that no traces are now found of Bethsaida, Chorazin or Capernaum."

3. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16: 19— 31, this word is used to denote the degradation and misery which came on the Scribes and Pharisees (of whom the rich man is the parabolic representative), when they died to all the privileges of the legal dispensation, were cast out of the gospel kingdom, and were brought into a lower state of degradation than they fancied the publicans and sinners (of whom the beggar is the parabolic representative) to be in. All the figures of this parable are drawn from the heathen notions respecting Elysium and Tartaros. Now, had our Lord believed the views of the heathen in regard to hades and its different apartments to be correct, he would not have drawn the figures of a parable from those views. Indeed, any attempt to do this would be to convert that which was designed for a parable into a literal relation of facts.

4. The soul, or person, of Jesus Christ is spoken of as having been in hell. See Acts 2: 27, 28. Jesus was in hades, that is, the grave, to be sure, after death; but does any man believe that he went to a place of endless misery after death?

5. In Rev. 6: 8, hell is spoken of as being in this world. “And I looked, and behold, a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him and power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."

6. Mankind are spoken of as being delivered from hell. Rev. 20: 13, "And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them." Now, if the hell here spoken of was in a future state of existence, one thing is certain, those who were in it were not alive, but dead. How, then, could they suffer misery there? Another thing is very evident those who were in it were delivered from it, and no intimation is given that they were ever sent back again. If this text has reference to the literal resurrection, then the meaning simply is, that death and the grave, or hades, were to deliver up their dead. But it is not probable that the text refers to a literal resurrection. What John saw, he saw in a vision; and the vision is not to be interpreted literally any more than his other visions recorded in the same book.

7. In Matt. 16: 18, we are told that "the gates of hell (hades) shall not prevail against the church of Christ." But, are we to understand by this that the gates of a place of endless misery should not prevail against his church? What danger was there of this? The word gates here is evidently used to signify power. Death, the common enemy of mankind, was in a thousand forms assailing the subjects of Christ's church, and he himself was to be brought under his dominion, and be made the subject of his pale realm. But a complete victory was to be obtained over death, and mankind were to be delivered from his power. Hence the powers of death and the grave could not prevail against the church of Christ.

8. In Rev. 1: 8, we are informed that Christ has "the keys of hell and of death." But has Christ the keys of a place of endless misery, in a future state of existence, called hell? Is it not supposed, by those who believe in such a place, that an all-powerful evil spirit, called the devil, has possession of those keys? If the keys of hell here mean the keys of a place of endless misery, over which such a being as we have just spoken of reigns, then Jesus must be the door-keeper for the devil. But who can believe this? No one. Jesus has the keys of death and of the grave; he can therefore enter the dominion of these powers, and deliver mankind from their cold and iron grasp.

9. The usage of hades in the New Testament exhibits as plain a resemblance to the grave, as sheol of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, as we have seen, the gates that guarded the entrance to the buri l-places of the Jews, are mentioned in connection

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 version 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