Excerpt from Eternal Penalty: Nine Essays From "the Northwestern Church" We may call these things metaphors. That does not alter the matter. Metaphors are metaphoric of something. Symbols symbolize some thing. Figures are used to explain a reality which is beyond common speech. Call these words metaphors, symbols, figures, if you like; they are metaphors, symbols, figures, of some reality, which such words only can indicate. They are there on the pages of the New Testament, chosen by the highest Wisdom as the bestwords to convey an idea. They succeed. Who that reads them does not feel the idea? Who can doubt the sense they carry? They mean punishment, and pun ishment of a kind so sore that these expressions are the only ones found adequate to convey an idea of its intensity. Calling them metaphors, figures, imagery, and so on, does not, then, as people often mistake, put them out of existence. We may admit them freely to be metaphors, figures and imagery, the fire to be no fire of wood or coal, the worm to be no literal viper of flesh, the gnashing of teeth to be no literal grinding of those organs. But they are there still. They are not there for nothing, surely not for idle bluster. They express something which they only can symbolize or image; some spi ritual idea of which they alone can hint the reality. What is that 9 Look at them honestly and say what that is - Punishment, sore punishment, bitter and heavy punishment. They mean that or nothing. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.