he
time these "adversaries" cease to have cognizable existence, their
antecedent power and influence will be regarded by those who were once
subject to them with antipathy and abhorrence, so that any return to
the same subjection will (as we say) be morally impossible. When in
the end God has become "all in all," no antagonism remains; all {62}
enemies have been subdued. Any one who is unwilling to accept the
foregoing interpretation might reasonably be asked in what other way he
can explain why, of all created things, _brimstone_ is specially
mentioned with reference to this "mystery" (see Rev. xvii. 5, 16).

In the last verse of the passage under consideration we have, "And if
any one (_ei tis_) was not found written in the book of life, he was
cast into the lake of fire" (v. 15). It is to be observed that the
lake of fire is not here said to be burning with brimstone. This
sentence must accordingly receive an interpretation analogous to that
given above with respect to Death and Hades. When the final judgment
has had complete effect, there will no longer be objective existence of
any whose names are not in the book of life, because all will have been
made meet for the inheritance of life. For this reason "the book of
life" is mentioned (in _v._ 12) in immediate connection with the books
containing the records according to which the judgment is transacted.
I am well aware that the preceding interpretations do not accord with
views entertained by many in the present day. I remember to have heard
a sermon on the text, "This is the second death," in the course of
which the preacher did not once advert to the word "This," but gave a
description, the most terrible his imagination could supply, of what he
judged to be the second {63} death. We find revealed in Scripture
respecting "the terrors of the Lord"--the anguish and tribulation, the
slaughter and destruction, proceeding from His wrath in the day of
judgment--quite enough to deter sinners from going on in sin, without
gratuitously adding the doctrine of the perpetuity of evil, the
preaching of which seems to have the effect of hindering the belief and
expectation of the impending realities of that great day. Besides, it
may well be asked how such preaching can be reconciled with the Gospel
revelations, stated in language devoid of symbol, which are contained
in Rev. xxi.; to which I shall afterwards have occasion to call
attention. But, first, it will be nec