Some of my readers having in some measure misunderstood the aim and meaning of Part III. of previous editions of this volume, I now give, in order to place these beyond doubt, the following further explanation.<br><br>The aim of the whole book is to reproduce the teaching of the Bible about the great events which will close the present order of things and about the new order which will follow. This I have done for the future punishment of sin on pp. 103 - 193. At the close of this exposition I have recapitulated as follows: "To sum up. The writers of the New Testament agree to describe, with more or less definiteness, the punishment to be inflicted in the day of Christ's return as actual suffering and as final exclusion from the blessedness of the saved. They give no ground for hope that the agony of the lost will ever cease: but they do not plainly and categorically assert its endless continuance."