It is a little trying for old men, after toiling a lifetime in the cause, and when they are struggling under the infirmities of age, to be shoved aside, as we know some of them are, and treated with contempt by the young men who ought to be a comfort and consolation to them. The cause is the Lord’s, and we are his, and we shall all give account to him. Let us keep pure ourselves, and keep the church pure; let us make a record of which we shall not be ashamed when the Lord shall come. We must study to bear our burdens, and to do so without murmuring. What we can not cure, we must endure.
[EVERLASTING AND ETERNAL.]
EVERLASTING and eternal are from the same in the original. “Everlasting punishment,” and not everlasting annihilation, nor everlasting extinction of being, nor everlasting non-existence, is what the Lord threatens. Matt. xxv. 46. At the same time the righteous enter into “life eternal,” the wicked “go away into everlasting punishment.” The original word aionion here is translated, in the common version, “eternal” in one place, and “everlasting” in the other. There is no reason for not translating this word the same way in both places. It means precisely the same in both places. At the same time we repeat, that the righteous enter into “life eternal,” the wicked “go away into eternal punishment.” The same word used by the Lord, in the same sentence to express the duration of the life of the saints, is used to express the duration of the punishment of the wicked. It is as likely that the life of the saints shall terminate, as that the punishment of the wicked shall cease. There is no word in any language that more certainly expresses unlimited duration than this word aionion. It is used to express the duration of the life of the saints, the praises of God, and even the existence of God. A word may be used with less than its full import, but never with more.
[ENDURING HARDNESS AS GOOD SOLDIERS.]
