are
tormented when their sins are laid bare in the presence of the holy
angels and of the _Lamb_, who by reason of their sins was slain.
Lastly, we are told that "the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for
ever and ever." The general signification of "smoke," regarded as a
symbol, appears to be, effect or consequence. Thus, in the remarkable
symbol of "a smoking furnace" seen in vision by Abraham (Gen. xv. 17),
the fire of the furnace may represent the operation of the law, and the
smoke may symbolize "the abounding" of the sins of mankind consequent
upon that operation (see Rom. v. 20; also compare 2 Esdras iv. 48).
But in the passage before us we have "smoke of torment," of which smoke
it is said that it "ascends up for ever and ever," signifying, it would
seem, the perpetuity of the _effect_ of the torment. This
interpretation accordingly agrees with that previously given (p. 61)
relative to "the lake of fire burning with brimstone." There is,
however, this difference to be noted, that whereas the present passage
relates especially to the effect of the _pain and torment_ attendant
upon the _process_ of being judged, the other speaks of the effect of
the second _death_ to {66} which the wicked, after being tried by the
judgment, are condemned.

The portion of Scripture contained in Matt. xxv. 31-46, gives,
concerning the awards to be respectively adjudged to the righteous and
unrighteous, and the final consequences of the judgment, certain
revelations, symbolically expressed, which are made by the Lord
himself, the future Judge. In order to complete the argument from
Scripture respecting the effect of judgment, we must endeavour to
interpret these revelations. "When the Son of man shall come in his
glory, and all the holy angels with him, he will sit on the throne of
his glory: and all nations will be gathered before him: and he will
separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from
the goats; and he will place the sheep on his right hand, and the goats
on his left" (_vv._ 31-33). We are thus told that all of all nations
will come into the presence of the Judge, and that he will separate
them into two portions, as distinct the one from the other as sheep are
from goats. From what is said farther on we gather that one portion
are "the just" (_oi dikaioi_, _v._ 37), and the other the unjust; but
no mention is made of a particular process of separation. Consequently
there is nothing here w