clear what these words meant to a Greek: he had no other words wherewith to express himself. Had there been a Greek word for eternity in common use he would not have chosen it, for eternity has a hint of monotony about it, whereas "ages of ages" compels us to envisage ceaseless change and development, as the wisdom of God unrolls its manifold plans of enjoyment.

N.B. 3. The dreadful words of Phil. 3,19—"whose end is destruction"—and the like words in Heb. 6,4-8; 10,26-31 hold out no hope of a happy eternity to those who have trampled under foot the Son of God.

N.B. 4. Yet in his rejection of some theories of Eternal Punishment the Ultimate Reconciliationist has been nearer to the heart of God than those who have held them. He has at least seen the awful horror of Eternal Torment, and revolted from the thought of vast masses of mankind being tortured by God in eternal fire without having had the least opportunity of escape offered to them! It is not in his estimate of the character of God that he has erred so much as in his practical denial of the freedom of the will of man, and his refusal to accept the plain statements of Scripture, that the torment of Hell is everlasting.

"Born in Sin" Theories

There are three types of such theories to be considered: but before doing so it is worth pointing out that neither of the two phrases, "born in sin" and "original sin", occur in Scripture: they are man-made, and have no divine warrant behind them. They have however been so often repeated that very many Christians are sure that they are in the Bible until asked to find them.

A. Imputed Guilt

The first theory takes the ground that as the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the saint when he is born again, so the guilt of Adam was imputed to all Adam's children. Some would even go so far as to say that even if a man could himself live a sinless life, he would still deserve to go to Hell for what Adam did.