that the lost in hell are excluded for ever; shame and everlasting contempt are their inheritance; "they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of God," is their sentence: the bottomless pit in which they are ever sinking, and yet never touching the bottom, is their terrible progression. Annihilation it cannot be, for it is weeping; nor will there be any change of place, for there is no place to go to. Were they delivered from their place of torment, they could not live in heaven; for the company of the holy would be torment to them, and their presence would alter the whole representation of the blessed they are unfit for heaven, for they are not holy; they have gone to that place for which they fitted themselves, and for which they are only fit. It may be said that their long sufferings will change their nature, but is there any intimation in the Bible that the sufferings of the lost are either purifying, sanctifying, or saving? Does not every declaration show that they are penal? Does punishment ever lead its victim to love the punisher? does it not exasperate? If torture could have saved the souls. of sinners, Christ would have never died. If a temporary suffering could have redeemed mankind, an infinite atonement would not have been made. But all Scripture shows us that salvation is only in and by Christ, and that out of Christ here or hereafter there is no salvation. Is there any intimation that Christ will be offered to the lost, that there will be a Calvary there, that there will be a Pentecost in hell? Is not the very reason of their ruin their rejection of Christ? and is not the result of that rejection that there is no more any sacrifice for sin? If the lost are to be saved, "now" is not the only accepted time, "to-day" is not the only day of salvation; the procrastination of Felix was not a delusion, the almost Christianity of Agrippa was not utter ruin; there will be in hell a more

attractive cross, a more willing Saviour, a more glorious gospel, a brighter apocalypse of it. But where is this taught? By whom is it taught? Not in the Bible. It is answered, however, that "everlasting" is used in a modified sense and to express limited duration. We read of "the everlasting hills;" the land of Canaan is given to Abraham "an everlasting possession;" at the end of seven years a slave became "a slave for ever." But in all these cases there is no possibility of mistake, for the disproof of eternity is always at hand in the same book; the earth will be dissolved; Canaan was taken away; the slave dies. In every case in which the word "eternal" is applied in the Bible to any thing that is temporary, we have only to read or to analyze, and we have the proof that it is used in a limited sense, just as it is applied to the earth in a limited sense. But, to show the folly of any such reasoning as that we object to, the earth is called eternal, which means that it will not last; therefore, when God is called eternal, we must understand that he will not live for ever. But the word "eternal" is applied to things beyond, below, or above the world in a totally different way. "The everlasting God," "eternal redemption," "everlasting happiness," this is the origin of the word and its strict import: whereas, the other uses of the word are its figurative applications. In each of the limited senses in which the word "everlasting" is used, it implies, as long as the subject lasts of which it is predicated; and so, when it is applied to the torment of the lost, it is so long as the souls last that are the objects and the subjects of it. If there be no eternity of penalty in the Scriptures, it cannot be shown that there is any prospect of an eternity of joy; for the very language that is used of the one is constantly applied to the other. But the very nature of the character of the lost implies its cumulative character, and therefore

the eternity of their sufferings. They ever sin, and must ever suffer; for in such a case, severed from the Saviour, beyond the reach and appliances of the gospel, sin is a ceaseless evil, never working out its own cure, and always working out its own punishment. It is said of the betrayer of our Lord, "It had been good for Judas if he had never been born." If Judas were to suffer a million years, yet, if there be an eternity of happiness at the end of this million years, it could not be said, "It had been good for him that he never had been born." Eternity, in truth, is the most rapturous element in the enjoyment of the saved: it is the most terrible portion of the miseries of the lost.

Every man I now address has for his final state heaven or hell. This is not a fancy or a conjecture; every soul is rushing every day to the one or the other. We may not think so, we may not feel so, yet our disbelief of it does not prove its untruth. What a guiding light should this solemn fact throw upon all our ways! Is our way parallel with the way that leads to heaven? Is this step we are now taking in the direction of glory? If men felt thus, they would quarrel less, and live and learn more. Every man may know much more of his future state now than he is disposed to admit. Few perish without strong and deepening convictions that such is their course. It was not the wealth of the rich man that ruined him, but the rejection of the Saviour; it was not the poverty of Lazarus that saved him, but his friendship with God. Are we on the Lord's side? Are we the friends of God? Can we say, "Thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee?" What responsibilities are crowding into hours! what weighty elements are involved in existence ! «Now" carries in its bosom "then;" the future life is the flower and the fruitage of the present. May we have grace to see and feel that it is so!

77

LECTURE V.

THE RETRIBUTION.

Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.—LUKE xvi. 27–31.

I HAVE said in my former lecture, that whether this is to be taken as a literal fact, or to be viewed, as we are disposed to view it, rather as a parable, it equally teaches the same great instructive and solemn truths. I showed, first of all, the character of the rich man. His sin lay not in his wealth; there is no more sin in being rich, than there is in being poor; there is no more sin in the robe that the queen wears, than there is merit in the rags that cover a beggar. These are not the elements of sin; they are adventitious, circumstantial things, which may have responsibility from the use or abuse of them, but have in themselves no inherent merit or sin in the sight of God. I showed, next, wherein the sin lay—namely, in this, that he suffered Lazarus to lie at his porch without relieving him; that he had the means of aid, and would not bestow them; that he heard his cry of want, and would not feed him; that he was so wrapped up in his own selfish enjoyments, that he had nothing to spare for the wants or necessities of the poor, however clamorous or pressing these

might be. We next read of their death. The tables are turned: Lazarus is borne on angel's pinions into happiness, and is comforted. The rich man dies, is splendidly buried, and lifts up his eyes in hell, being in torment. I showed, next, that there may be a vision, that there is here represented a vision, of the happy on the part of the wretched. There may not be a vision in reality in the world to come, but there will be a knowledge that some who enjoyed less opportunities than we, are happy; and that we, who had better opportunities, perish for ever. I endeavoured to show what is implied in the petition to Abraham. It is the only instance in Scripture appearing to favour the doctrine of the invocation of saints, the great doctrine of the Church of Rome-of a sinner in misery. praying to a saint in glory to deliver him. This is the most unhappy instance they could quote, for the rich man here asks in vain. I endeavoured to show what may be implied in the expression, "cool my tongue." I do not believe it was a material torment, for the resurrection was not yet come. The parable contemplates that state of happiness into which the souls of the righteous go, and that state of misery into which the souls of the wicked go, previous to the resurrection. Material fire could not be here, because there was no material subject for it. Nor may there ever be material fire. It is probable that the language is figurative; but, at the same time, it is certain that the torture and the agony of a conscience writhing with remorse and recollections, aggravated by all the scenes and circumstances from which they rush, will constitute a fever so terrible, a torment so insufferable, that the language which is here used does not over-express it. I showed from this passage, too, this very important inference: that we have here direct evidence that the soul is immortal; that when the body dies, the soul does not die with it; that the