be that these sins are here enumerated as the special characteristics of the antichristian and Roman apostasy. They are, unquestionably, the historical characteristics, and, I believe, necessary fruits of that system. But whether there or here, unbelief is the parent. Faith is the cure: it worketh by lovepurifieth the heart-overcometh the world; it is the gift of God, and the privilege and possession of them that pray.

117

LECTURE VIII.

ENDLESS SUFFERERS.

"Which is the second death."-Revelation xxi. 8.

I HAVE already addressed you on previous Sunday everings from the subject of "the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband;" and also on its peculiar accompaniment, "The tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them ;" and we have rejoiced together at the promise of the final extinction of all tears and sorrows in the hearts of God's people, for God shall wipe away, and wipe out the fountains of all tears from their eyes. I noticed the creative intimation, "Behold I make all things new," and the free invitation addressed to all: "I will give unto him that is athirst of the water of life freely;" lastly, I stated that all these promised good things are to be the inheritance of "him. that overcometh," an expression which involves conflict, weapons, a leader, and victory.

My object this evening is to show that the notion held by some in the present day, that the sufferings of the lost will not be eternal but temporal, is erroneous, and without any scriptural or reasonable foundation. Before entering upon my subject, I will read a short quotation from Archdeacon Paley. He says, "It is very difficult to handle this dreadful subject properly; and one cause of the difficulty is, that it is not for one poor sinner to denounce such awful terrors and appalling consequences upon others." In stating that the pains of the lost are not temporal but eternal, I am aware that I take the unpopular and, to many, the unpalatable view; but the truth of a doctrine does not depend on its agreeableness, or upon the many or the few that hold it: "To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

As far as I can conceive of the state of the lost, I think the expression in the text, "the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone," is figurative. I do not think it is here implied that there will be a material fire, or a literal gnawing worm, to torment the lost; these are the expressive, and it may be inadequately expressive, vehicles and symbols of their intense and untold agony. Besides these there are elements of wo enough in hell. Let a virtuous and delicate mind, to allude only to one, conceive what it would feel, were it condemned for a time to the company of persons selected from the bridewells or the penitentiaries of the earth. Would not the scene be a painful one? Would not their blasphemous oaths strike terror into the heart, and their impure words create disgust and abhorrence in the pure and delicate soul? And yet, to be placed in such a hell on earth is but a faint shadow of the realities of that literal hell: here, amid all the varied forms of depravity, redeeming traits are thrown up, mitigating and relieving elements of aboriginal beauty shine forth; but among the lost there is no softening element at all, nothing but unmixed sin, unmitigated and unmingled evil in its various degrees.

In the state of the lost, too, those evil passions which so often rankle latent in bosoms here, and develop their powers with years and opportunities, we have reason to believe will there be released of every restriction, and left unshackled to revel in full and exasperated expansion for ever. "He that is holy, let him be holy still; he that is unholy, let him be unholy still." Heaven is the full and unfettered expansion of those noble principles of holiness, and buds of happiness, that God has implanted in the renewed heart; and hell is the eternal growth and expansion of the poisonous passions and rankling elements of misery formed in the natural heart. Thus a sinner sinks to hell as a natural consequence of his past conduct; it is not God who has doomed a soul to hell, it is not his fiat that sends him there, but sin, which has ripened the soul for it, weighs it down and buries it there. I gather from the Scriptures, that whatever of beauty and splendour, and ennobling motive, and inspiring hope, survive here, are emanations of the Almighty. But there will be with the lost God's curse concentrated; no trace of beauty with

out, no trace of joy within-an ever-gathering and seething sense of wo, casting over the length and breadth of hell one dark, terrible shadow, crushing the soul, yet never filling its capacity of wo-the whole past distilling bitterness, the future evolving from it not one ray of happiness or hope; but down the terrible steeps of hell the cataract of God's wrath shall precipitate itself over palpitating piles of men, and no intimation heard that one drop of the water of life shall flow to cool or quench the burning flame.

The lost will be in the possession of all their faculties. Memory will be there, as we see in Abraham's address to the rich man: "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things." Memory will record salvation past like a ship at sea, seen for a moment and gone for ever; a preached Saviour rejected, and offered mercies the most precious then perished.

"Which way I climb is hell,-myself am hell;"

and then will be the consuming recollection, "I might have been rejoicing with the redeemed in heaven, but now I am to suffer eternally in hell, not because there were no invitations in the gospel addressed to me, or any unwillingness in God's heart to receive me, but because I did it all myself."

The conscience will be fully alive in hell. You have only to imagine man's conscience in full unfettered action, all the opiates of earth withdrawn, and around it a sea of overflowing evil, to conceive what a hell man bears in his bosom: "Which way I climb is hell,-myself am hell," will indeed be true. A man may carry coiled up in his heart so terrible a prestige of hell, that it needs but the hand of death to uncoil the life, and the intense agony symbolized by "the consuming fire" and "gnawing worm" will be produced.

"So writhes the mind remorse hath riven,

Unfit for earth, undoom'd to heaven,

Darkness above, despair beneath,

Around it flame, within it death."

Have any of you committed some terrible crime against society? If so, do you not remember the burning shame and a

self-reproach that followed that act? Wherever you went the recollection haunted you; to escape from it was impossible; it stung you from every point. This is but a faint shadow of the power of conscience in the regions of the lost. We need not the doctrine of eternal reprobation in its popular sense. Whatever good is in man, comes from God; whatever of evil, comes from man; the lost plunge into hell solely by their own personal course and choice; each sin one indulges in is but a budding wo, and perseverance in the wicked practices of sin is just travelling on the high road that leads to destruction, while the renunciation of it and return to God would restore him to the pathway to eternal happiness.

But I do not delight to dwell on the misery of the lost. Blessed be God, my message to all is an offer of eternal life, and that without preparation on your part, or any delay: no preparation is necessary; you are invited to come just as you are to Him "who is the resurrection and the life." I do not believe that the terrors of the law, or a description of the miseries of the lost, are God's consecrated instruments for the salvation of souls. The weapon that is all but omnipotent to convert, is the manifestation of the love of God in Christ, the preaching of "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." These are God's appointed and effectual means of converting the sinner, and when applied by the Spirit of God they cannot fail.

But the chief object of inquiry this evening is, What is the duration of the state called "the second death?" Is it temporal or eternal? for a little, or endless? Some able divines are of opinion that its duration is temporary, and this idea is gaining ground in the present day. I humbly think that it is the grace. of God alone that keeps the holders of this opinion from Socinianism, and not the consistency of their own logic. They are amid the rapids-let them watch, and tremble, and fear.

I will now lay before you several theories that have been broached on this subject, founded on the idea that the sufferings of the lost will be temporary.