_1. "Forever and Ever."_--In Rev. 20:10 it is said that the devil and his chief agencies "shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." The phrase emphasizes the surety of their utter destruction. "Forever" means age-lasting, or life-lasting--so long as a thing exists by its nature. Thus in Ex. 21:6 the servant who loved his master and did not wish to leave his service was to have his ear pierced, "and he shall serve him forever," that is, without release as long as he lives. So the fiery judgment of that last day holds the wicked until life ends; there is no release until life is consumed. _2. "Everlasting Punishment."_--"These shall go away into everlasting punishment." Matt. 25:46. It is everlasting punishment, not everlasting punishing. The punishment is everlasting death--"who shall be punished with everlasting destruction." 2 Thess. 1:9. The truth of the utter destruction of sinners is awful enough, but it commends itself to every thought of justice and mercy; for sin must be cleansed from a perfect universe. But the unscriptural view of everlasting conscious torment that never reaches the point of full punishment, is unthinkable. Yet it is urged as a doctrine, and contended for as vital to Christianity. The following description is taken from a book written for children, entitled "The Sight of Hell." It is printed in Dublin--for children. "Little child, if you go to hell, there will be a devil at your side to strike you. He will go on striking you every day, forever and ever, without ever stopping. The first stroke will make your body as bad as Job's, covered from head to foot with sores and ulcers. The second stroke will make your body twice as bad as the body of Job.... How then will your body be after the devil has been striking it every moment for a hundred million years without stopping?"--_Quoted in the London Present Truth, April 30, 1914._ What a relief to turn from this to the Bible doctrine of the "everlasting destruction" of the second death, terrible though it be! _3. "Everlasting Fire," "Eternal Fire," "Unquenchable Fire."_--All these expressions are used in describing the fiery judgment upon sin and sinners. The effect of the fire is everlasting and eternal, and by a common usage in language the adjective that describes the effect is applied to the agent by which the effect is wrought.