gulfed in the past, be as though they were not, while through them all and on, on, on, forever on, the wretchedness of your sinful estate will be a present, an ever abiding reality.

"I admit the awful nature of the conclusion, that the punishment of the future world is to have no end. I do most fully admit, that it is indeed. 'a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.' But what if I should doubt or deny it? Can this have any influence on that eternal Judge, who will pronounce my final sentence? None. Can my denial of what he has said, or my refusal to explain it in analogy with all his other declarations relative to things of the future world, or my efforts to fritter away the meaning of his declarations-can all this avail me, when I stand an unembodied, naked, helpless spirit before his searching eye and the tribunal of his almighty power? Oh, the dreadful thought! What if I deceive myself, and cry out, 'peace! peace!' while my God saith, 'There is no peace to the wicked?' Will this repeal his law, altar its meaning, or frustrate its penalty? It is indeed a fearful hazard for men to cast themselves for safety on such a desperate wreck as this!"

"I must hold to the endless punishment of the wicked, or give up the endless happiness of the righteous. And if the hope of this must be aban

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doned, then may we well ask, what the gospel has revealed that is worth our knowing, or of what value is the existence which the Creator has given us."

"The result seems to me to be plain, and philologically and exegetically certain. It is this: either the declarations of the Scriptures do not establish the facts, that God and his glory and praise and happiness are endless, nor that the happiness of the righteous in a future world is endless; or else they establish the fact, that the punishment of the wicked is endless. The whole stand or fall together. There can from the very nature of antithesis, be no room for rational doubt here, in what manner we should interpret the declarations of the sacred writers. WE MUST EITHER ADMIT THE ENDLESS MISERY OF HELL, OR GIVE UP THE ENDLESS HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN."

CHAPTER VIII.

FAITH.

In view of all the foregoing truth you do well to inquire "What must I do?" But it is now a question, not so much of what you must do as of what God has done and will do for you. There lies your hope. Apart from that you can only despairingly cry "undone, undone, God be merciful to me a sinner." But in the latter part of that cry there is that which reaches the heart of God. It will "enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth."

It will not be uttered in vain. It will be well pleasing unto God and your extremity will be his opportunity. He will answer your cry by the visitation of his mercy upon you according to the riches of his grace. If you are to enter into life it must be by ceasing to look to self, by casting away the confidence of all hope in the flesh and fixing your look, your hope, your confidence, upon that great and merciful and sympathetic high priest who was in all points tempted as you. Your

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only hope is in that Sinless One who was "made to be sin for you," and who can and will "save you to the uttermost." For the excellency of the vision of Christ and the experience of the mercy of God toward you in and through Him, you will 'count all things but loss." To "win Christ and be found in him, not having your own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith"-for that you must stand ready to "suffer the loss of all things."

Well, if as a sinner, a convicted and helpless sinner, you are a docile, earnest and sincere seeker, you will find Christ as your Lord and Saviour, for he is seeking you. He came from heaven for the express purpose of seeking and saving the lost-of whom you are one.

And the very fact that you now realize your condemnation as a sinner and are moved to cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner" is a token from God that the merciful and compassionate Redeemer is finding you.

For know assuredly that God does not delight in the death of the sinner. On the contrary his love for lost men is such that he "gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

"For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die."

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners."

"I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

In view of all these assurances, then, if you, as a sinner, perish, it will be clearly your own fault and not that of the merciful God and Saviour. "O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself but in me is thine help."

Because of the revelations of the antecedent chapters as to the unspeakable importance of the matter, the awful nature of sin; your present estate of guilt, condemnation and pollution; the fearful looking for a future of certain, intense and irremediable woe-well may you sincerely, earnestly, solemnly ask, in the presence of such issues of destiny, "What must I do?" In such a case you need One who is mighty to save. And, behold, he cometh. "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in