our reach. Let the same spirit of unrestrained love burn in us, towards all who breathe, and display itself in a kindly intercourse with our fellow creatures; subduing all bitterness, and quickening us to all good deeds. To us may the supplicating eye be never raised in vain; to us the voice of sorrow never plead unheard. Far from us be all fostered resentment; the forbidding glance; the sharp rebuke; the harsh denial. Let us remember that the children of misfortune suffer enough, without the mockery of ill-timed levity; or the taunts of wanton barbarity. Let us not pass by the house of mourning, as beings who have nothing in common with those that mourn. Let us pour the balm of sympathy into their wounds, knowing that we are all fellow soldiers in the same warfare, and that the sword which has smitten our brother to-day, may to-morrow fall upon ourselves. To be merciful is our part; to unite judgment with mercy is God's alone. Let us hold out the right hand of fellowship" to men of all sects, countries, and denominations. Pilgrims, doomed to travel together but a little time, should not quarrel by the way. Travellers fated soon to part; alike beset with temptations; exposed to the same perils; the heavenly city still far distant; the pit of destruction yawning beneath them ;-Travellers thus united by similarity of fortune, should not by needless revilings, take from their journey, the comforts it is capable of. To have fallen short of eternal happiness, and to incur eternal punishment, is surely a degree of misery, which needs no aggravation from us. Let us then exhort without ceasing, and praying that we to withstand in the evil day, and having " may be able done all, to stand," let us leave the rest to him, "in whose hands are the issues of life and death." CHAPTER XII. Dreadfulness of their future state, who repent not of their sins: Christ's atonement unavailing to them : Conclusion. W E have contemplated a faint picture of heavenly bliss; let us now for a moment reverse the scene. Let us fancy ourselves assembled at the bar of God, covered with guilt; trembling with dismay; conscious of unrepented sins; without the plea of having endeavoured to do well. Let us not turn away from the sight, for if it be a just one (and such it is, if there be a word of truth in the Scripture) we ought to look upon it. If it be painful to us to contemplate it now, it will be ruinous to us to contemplate it hereafter. If our consciences tell us, that we are labouring to act up to that mode of conduct, which, according to the best light within our reach, we believe to be what God wishes from us, the anticipation of an hereafter cannot pain us. If it do pain us, there is plain proof, that we want some stronger motive to be good, than we have hitherto had. Do what we will, we cannot prevent the scene of future judgment, from being realized. Sooner or later we must witness it. We may indeed avert our eyes now, but at the great day of account, it will be impossible. Our infatuation in doing so, is like that of a man, who, aware that he is approaching a precipice, buries his face in his mantle, and walks contentedly on. It is like the folly of an ostrich, who hiding her head in the sand, thinks that her pursuers lose sight of her, because she no longer sees them. Our cowardice is that of a sick man, striking away the lancet whose incision is to save his life. Let us meditate then on this scene boldly, for it shall have a saving influence, a salutary effect on our conduct. Let us look forward to the time, in which it shall be too late to call for mercy; when the door shall be shut, and Christ shall be no more found of him that entreateth. When justice shall have taken place of mercy; the day of forgiveness be past, and the long night of punishment arrived. When the season of pardon shall be gone by, and the hour of retribution come. When men shall call upon the mountains to cover them, from the recollection of that folly which has ruined them, and shall pray for eternal night to hide them from themselves. When they shall cry out in the bitterness of their hearts for annihilation, and it shall be denied to them. To them shall hope ne'er come, that comes to all;" for them no more the blood of Christ avail. Their spiritual blindness here, shall be punished by eternal remorse hereafter. The offer of pardon, so long held out to them, on the easy terms of complying with the Gospel precepts, and so long rejected, shall be made to them no more. They shall wake as from a feverish dream, agonized and full of woe; but there shall be no friend at hand to assuage the horror of their minds. They shall be sick, even unto death, but there shall be no physician nigh to mitigate their pain. He whom they have so often driven away, shall return no more. No "Sun of righteousness, with healing under his wings," shall dart his cheering beams on them, That sun, as to them, will be set for ever. He whose proffered relief they laughed to scorn, shall now be no where found. They shall pass from the delirium of intemperate, and unreal joy, to the reality of exquisite and unceasing torment; indescriba. ble, and everlasting woe. Even so, Lord, for so it seemed good in thine eyes. It is fit, oh Lord, yea, it is very fit, that they who reject thy mercy, continually calling them to repentance, should suffer even as thou the Lord hast decreed. . My friends, think not this scene overdrawn, unnecessary, gloomy, or enthusiastic. It is a scene which, if there be a word of truth in Holy Writ, we must all witness, unless we repent; "Eternity, by all or hop'd or fear'd, THE END. Printed by W. Suffield, Bull-Street, Birmingham. |