_The wicked shall be consumed and devoured by fire._ “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness,” &c. “Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust”! Isa. 5:20-24. Reader, have you ever seen fire devour stubble, or flame consume chaff? Then you have seen a figure of the destruction of the wicked. And let the advocate of eternal misery tell us, if such language does not denote the utter consumption of the wicked, what language would do it, if the doctrine were true. Let us know what language Inspiration should have used, had it wished to convey such an idea. Is it such as this? “But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.” Ps. 37:20. “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and _devoured_ them.” The word here rendered devour, κατέφαγεν, says Stuart, is “intensive, to _eat up, devour_, so that it denotes utter excision.” In the light of this scripture, we can readily understand how it is that the wicked are to be recompensed in the earth. Prov. 11:31. Coming up in the second resurrection, at the end of the 1000 years of Rev. 20:5, they come up around the New Jerusalem, the beloved city, the abode of the saints, then descended from Heaven to earth, chap. 21:5, and then their fearful retribution overtakes them. It is then that they have their portion in those purifying fires that sweep over the earth, in which, according to Peter’s testimony, the elements of this great globe itself shall melt with fervent heat. 2 Pet. 3:10, 12. For it is at the day of Judgment (by which of course we must understand the execution of the Judgment) and perdition of ungodly men that this takes place. See verse 7. So, too, the righteous, as they go forth upon the new earth, verse 13, destined to be their eternal and glorious abode, will receive their recompense in the earth. Then will be fulfilled the word of the Lord by the prophet Malachi, which says, “For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven: and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.” Mark the distinctness of this language. It does not say that the wicked shall be _as_ ashes, nor does it introduce any comparison here whatever, but plainly states a plain fact, that they