“_The wicked shall come to an end and be as though they had not been._” “For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and _it_ shall not be.” Ps. 37:10. If this testimony be true, there will be neither a sinner nor any _place_ for a sinner, after God has executed upon them his just judgments. “They shall be as though they had not been.” Obad. 16. The reader is requested to mark the significance of these texts. They are not figures, but plain enunciations of truth, demanding to be understood in the plainest and most literal manner. And though they are so abundant, and can be so easily produced, they are not to be passed over any more lightly on this account. _The wicked are compared to the most inflammable and perishable substances._ Had the wicked been compared to the most durable substances with which we are acquainted in nature; had they been likened to the “everlasting hills,” the during rock, or the precious metals, gold and gems, the most incorruptible of all substances; such comparisons would not have been without their weight in giving us an idea of an eternity of existence; nor can we think they would have been overlooked by the other side. We therefore claim an equal significance on our side of the question for the fact that they are everywhere compared to just the opposite of the above-named substances--substances the most perishable and corruptible of any that exist. For no idea can be drawn from such comparisons at all compatible with the idea of eternal preservation in the midst of glowing and devouring fire. Thus it is said of the wicked that they shall be dashed in pieces like a potter’s vessel, Ps. 2:9, they shall be like the beasts that perish, Ps. 49:20, like the untimely fruit of a woman, Ps. 58:8, like a whirlwind that passeth away, Ps. 68:2; Prov. 10:25, like a waterless garden scorched by an eastern sun, Isa. 1:30, like garments consumed by the moth, Isa. 51:8, like the thistle down scattered by the whirlwind, Isa. 17:13, margin. They shall consume like the fat of lambs in the fire, Ps. 37:20, consume into smoke (_ibid._), and ashes, Mal. 4:3, melt like wax, Ps. 68:2, burn like tow, Isa. 1:31, consume like thorns, Isa. 34:12, vanish away like exhausted waters, Ps. 58:7. The illustrations which the New Testament uses to represent the destiny of the wicked are of exactly the same nature. They are likened to chaff, which is to be burned entirely up, Matt. 3:12, tares to be consumed, Matt. 13:40, withered branches to be burned, John 15:6, bad fish cast away to corruption, Matt. 13:47, 48, a house thrown down to its foundations, Luke 6:49, to the destruction of the old world by water, Luke 17:27, to the destruction of the Sodomites by fire, verse 29, 2 Pet. 2:5, 6, and to natural brute beasts, that perish in their own corruption. Verse 12.