Eternal suffering and eternal glory.
Holy Scripture sets before us,. as Moses set before the people of Israel in the wilderness, a tremendous alternative—"life and death;" one the eternal foil and counterpart of the other, with the exhortation a thousand times repeated in a thousand different forms—"Choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19). Man's desire is to separate what God has inseparably connected, and to retain "everlasting life," "eternal glory," "endless bliss," but to get rid altogether of their counterparts—"eternal suffering," "everlasting contempt," "endless death." But man cannot alter the system of God's universe, nor, could he do so, is it to be supposed that he would find himself able to improve it. Deep down in the nature of things lies the eternal antagonism between good and evil—an antagonism which would seem to be necessary to the very existence of good in created beings; and the teaching of Scripture clearly is that this antagonism continues for ever. Of the nature of the eternal glory and the eternal suffering reserved for souls in the world to come, it is impossible for us in this life to have anything more than a dim and faint conception. But some points may be laid down negatively.
I. THE PAINS AND JOYS ARE NOT, NECESSARILY, IN ANY SENSE MATERIAL. For
II. THE PAINS AND JOYS ARE OF VARIOUS DEGREES OF INTENSITY. For
III. THE MAIN PUNISHMENT OF MANY MAY NOT CONSIST IN POSITIVE PAIN AT ALL. Mediaeval divines spoke of many souls in the place of punishment as suffering only the paena damni, or "sense of loss" inseparable from being shut out from God's presence, from the presence of the holy angels, and from that of the spirits of just men made perfect. This is quite possible, and in no way contradictory to the statements of Scripture.
IV. THERE MAY NOT IMPROBABLY BE AN AMELIORATION IN THE CONDITION OF SOME OF THE SUFFERERS. It cannot but be the case that the sufferers may bear their punishment with different degrees of patience, of obduracy, or of rebellion. As the determinedly rebellious would deserve, and may receive, an augmentation of punishment, so the more submissive and patient may conceivably have their burdens lightened. The very act of submission lightens the weight of a suffering, and a merciful God might be expected to show his approval of the submission by some positive alleviation of the pain.
These are thoughts which may tend to mitigate the horror wherewith some persons regard the entire doctrine of eternal punishment, and prevent them from viewing it as incompatible with God's essential attribute of mercy. At the same time, it must be granted that the whole subject is mysterious, and awful in the extreme—so mysterious and so awful that the greatest caution is needed lest we dogmatize upon it beyond the teaching of Scripture. Here, if anywhere, the warning of the preacher applies, "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou on earth: therefore let thy words be few" (Ecclesiastes 5:2).
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON