Q. Have you any Scripture evidence of the correctness of this construction?

A. There are several passages where the word "life" is evidently used in this manner.

Q. Can you quote them?

A. Upon a certain occasion Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."-(John vi. 63.) At another time he exclaimed, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.”—(John v. 24.)

Q. Is there other testimony of like character?

A. There is. Jesus declared, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."-(John xvii. 3.) The Apostle John also uses similar language: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren: he that loveth not his brother abideth in death.”—(1 John iii. 14.)

Q. What do we learn from these passages?

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A. We learn that the phrases "life eternal," "everlasting life," passed from death unto life," are used to represent an adoption of the doctrines proclaimed by Jesus Christ; and that hence, there is the utmost propriety in giving the same meaning to the similar phrase in the parable before us.

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Q. How should we understand the words enter into the kingdom of God," as used in the latter part of the parable?

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A. In the same manner as the phrase enter into life," already explained. The terms are perfectly synonymous, as may be seen by comparing verses 43

and 47.

Q. Is this term, "kingdom of heaven," or "kingdom of God," used in other places to represent the

spiritual, or gospel kingdom, which Jesus established on the earth?

A. It is. "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”—(Matt. iv. 17.) On a certain occasion Jesus, addressing the Jews, said, "The kingdom of God is come unto you."-(Matt. xii. 28.) At another time, he exclaimed, "Behold the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke xvii. 21.) Other passages of like character might be quoted. (See Matt. iii. 2; x. 7.)

Q. What does Dr. Adam Clarke say upon this phrase?

A. He says, the kingdom of heaven, "and the kingdom of God, mean the same thing, viz., the dispensation of infinite mercy, and manifestation of eternal truth, by Christ Jesus."

Q. What farther does he say on the subject?

A. He makes the following inquiries and answers: "But why is it called a kingdom? Because it has laws all the moral precepts of the gospel its subjects, all who believe in Christ Jesus; and its king, the Sovereign of heaven and earth. But why is it called the kingdom of heaven ? Because God designed that his kingdom of grace here, should resemble the kingdom of glory above."

LESSON VII.

Parable of the Offending Hand-Continued.

Q. How are we to arrive at the meaning of the word hell, as used in this parable?

A. Not by taking the view of it, which is the most popular at the present day, but by striving to ascertain how the Saviour understood it, when he uttered

it.

Q. What is the most proper way to obtain this important information?

A. By endeavoring to learn the origin of the phrase under consideration.

Q. What is the original word which the translators of our English Bible have rendered hell, in this parable?

A. It is the Greek word Gehenna.

Q. What is the derivation of Gehenna?

A. It is derived from two Hebrew words, Gee, (valley,) and Hinnom, (the name of the owner of the valley.) These words united make Gee Hinnom, (Gehenna,) the valley of Hinnom.

Q. What does Professor Stuart say of the situation of this valley?

A. He says

"the valley of Hinnom is a part (the eastern section) of the pleasant wadi or valley, which bounds Jerusalem on the south."

Q. What does he say of the uses to which this valley was put in ancient times?

A. "Here, in ancient times, and under some of the idolatrous kings, the worship of Moloch, the horrid idol god of the Ammonites, was practised. To this idol children were offered in sacrifice."

Q. How does he describe the appearance of the image of the god Moloch, and the manner of sacrificing to it?

A. "If we may credit the Rabbins, the head of the idol was like that of an ox; while the rest of its body resembled that of a man. It was hollow within; and being heated by fire, children were laid in its arms, and were there literally roasted alive."

Q. What other name was the valley of Hinnom known by anciently?

says,

"In

A. Schleusner, a German commentator, Jeremiah vii. 31, this valley is called Tophet, from the Hebrew Toph, a drum; because the priests in those horrible rites, beat drums, lest the wailings and

cries of the infants who were burned, should be heard by those standing around."

Q. Who abolished the worship of Moloch and other heathen idols, into which the Jews had fallen? A. The good king Josiah, as we learn in 2 Kings

xxiii. 10.

To what use was Gehenna (the valley of Hinnom) afterwards put?

A. Professor Stuart says, that "after these [idolatrous] sacrifices had ceased, the place was desecrated, and made one of loathing and horror. The pious king Josiah caused it to be polluted-that is, he caused to be carried there the filth of the city of Jerusalem. It would seem that the custom of desecrating this place, thus happily begun, was continued in after ages, down to the period when our Saviour was on earth. Perpetual fires were kept up, in order to consume the offal which was deposited there."

Q. Was this Gehenna (valley of Hinnom) ever used for the punishment of criminals?

A. It was. Professor Stuart, and other eminent writers, declare that this valley was not only desecrated in the manner described, but it came to be the place where malefactors were executed by burning to death.

Q. Is it natural to suppose that a place which was thus defiled, which was filled with the offals of the city, and made the place where the dreadful punishment of burning alive was inflicted, would become a loathing to the Jews?

A. It is. And we learn that they viewed it with great dislike and horror.

Q. Did the Jews, at length, come to use the name of this detested valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna, as emblematical of the severe judgments or woes, which God brings upon the wicked in this life?

A. They did. Schleusner says that "every severe punishment, and particularly every ignominious kind

of death, was called by the name of Gehenna "-or hell. And the prophet Jeremiah, in describing the calamities that should come upon Jerusalem, declares that it shall be "as Tophet "- -or Gehenna.

Q. Is there any proof that the Saviour, or the Jews in his day, ever used the word Gehenna, or hell, to signify a place of endless wretchedness?

A. There is no proof of this description.

Q. What evidence is relied upon by believers in that sentiment, to prove that Gehenna was used to denote a place of ceaseless wo?

A. The manner in which this word is used in the Targums, or commentaries, of Jewish writers, who are supposed to have lived near the days of the Saviour.

Q. How do these Targums fall short of proving the point in question?

A. They fail, because it is not at all certain that any of them were written in the days of Christ. It is the opinion of Bauer and Jahn, that the oldest of these Targums were not written until the second or third century of the Christian era; in which case they afford no evidence of the meaning attached to Gehenna by the Redeemer.

Q. Are the words, valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna, or Tophet, ever used in the Old Testament, as signifying a place of endless suffering?

A. They are not. No evidence to this effect, can be adduced.

Q. How are these words used in the Old Testament?

A. They are used as signifying temporal punishment and calamity.

Q. Is there any evidence, or any probability, that the meaning of these words had changed between the days of the Old Testament writers and the advent of the Redeemer ?