Surely every candid mind and every human heart will repel such a possibility as their final extinction or damnation. And when we realize that God has all eternity to right the wrongs of time, we begin to realize that the present is but one epoch of His administration.
I have just read these words of an orthodox divine: "The heart of the universe is love." Yes, that is the language of the heart in its best moods, whatever our creed may be. And the heart will sometimes speak its conviction strongly. It does seem that orthodox divines at times forget that according to their belief God consigns untold millions of His creatures to eternal fire. Yet surely He is "the heart of the universe;" and "the heart of the universe is love." Does it not seem the blackest of contradictions?
And when we think of His wisdom to arrange, and His power to execute, it does seem hard to believe that eternal conscious torment will be the fate of any of His creatures. We may see but a short way into the whole scheme of the divine administration; but the heart will refuse to believe in such a paradox.
"Omnia vincet amor"—love conquers all things. We accept that as a proverb even in this selfish and cruel world. Yes, and despite all hindrances, we often see love's triumphs. When everything else fails, love will win. And is it to be conceived that God, Who is Love Personified, will not win? Yes; if we knew nothing more than the general principle, we might make a confident forecast that He will not fail. But how overwhelming is our conviction when we see infinite love joined with infinite wisdom and infinite power! What will not this triumvirate of infinites accomplish?
We may be told that sin is an infinite evil, and that even infinite love cannot conquer it. We refuse to believe it. God is omnipotent in the moral, as well as in the material realm. Surely His infinite love will incline Him, His infinite wisdom will show Him how, and His infinite power will accomplish His desire.
Now again: The advocates of eternal torment will freely grant that God loves every soul that He has made. They will also concede that He is omniscient. Very well. Then He must have known that the millions of beings, now supposed to be in torment, were coming into the world; and He must have known that there was no possible way for them to avert their doom. And though He loved each of them with an infinite love, He made no way of escape, but consigned them to eternal torment. Foreseeing in His omniscience that all this would happen, He did not intercept their coming, which He could easily have done; nor did He provide any means of escape.
Is this the way infinite love, joined with divine foreknowledge, would act? Do not say that the matter is too high for us to understand. Even on a human plane we would expect a more beneficent result. How much more in the case of Him who foresees and arranges all contingencies, and whose love is from everlasting to everlasting. Do not such considerations as these absolutely prohibit the idea of endless suffering? Just take counsel with your own heart and mind.
Again, it is written that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." Now if He loved the world, He loved every individual in the world. He loves every soul of the human race. Not color, nor climate, nor civilization, nor any special epoch of the world's history, can make any restriction.
Now if God loved the world, He expressed His love for the world; and how did He express it? By giving his Son. Then He must have given His Son for every soul of man. It would be no expression of His love for me to give His Son for somebody else. But He loved me personally, and gave His Son for me personally. Hence Paul could say: "He loved me, and gave Himself for me." And so everyone of the human race may truly say.