should be preserved. And in Matt. xxiv. 48: Jesus, speaking of the judgment of that generation, which he elsewhere, as we have seen, denominated the punishment of Gehenna, that greatest of all tribulations that ever were or shall be, said unto his disciples, "But if that evil servant shall begin to say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

But the general preservation of life through all those calamities, to the servants of Jesus abiding in their fidelity, is a familiar theme of prophecy by the Jewish seers, and of promises by Jesus Christ. Daniel, prophesying of these tribulations, said, "Then shall thy people be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." And the Revelator, writing as the judgment of that age was at hand, speaks of the angels' sealing in their foreheads the servants of God, who should be preserved in the midst of the general desolation. (Rev. viii. 3.) And Jesus, describing the same judgment, which he expressly dated as an event of that generation, said, "he shall send forth his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matt. xxiv. 31.) This is a figurative description of the instrumentalities which should be employed to inspire

and guide the disciples in their escape for preservation, according to the direction given, "Let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains."

But notwithstanding so much was said by the Master, and properly and necessarily said, (as it was so essentially related to the comfirmation of the prophets, the lives of the Christians, and the preservation of the church to her subsequent mission in the world,) upon the signal and pre-eminent judgment of that age, yet all along there was an individual responsibility and an operative judgment. Hence, Judas, when he had betrayed his Master, came to his death in so miserable a manner, and connected with such shame and obloquy, as rendered it in a striking sense, the punishment of Gehenna.

We would not be understood as urging the doctrine of slavish fear. In the path of duty we have nothing to fear. Father Murray was strong in this confidence, when, on being entreated by his friends to descend from his pulpit in Boston lest he should be killed by the miscreants who, inspired with hatred by his theological opposers, were casting stones at him through the pulpit window, he calmly responded, "While the Lord has a work for me to do, all the stones in Boston cannot prevent it." Nor have we, in any case, occasion to fear the ultimate failure of that purpose of grace in Christ, which shall finally destroy death, and sin, and misery. The grand and leading principle of Christian obedience is the love of God and of duty. But circumstanced as we are in this life, occasionally temptations may beset us, and

promise us an escape from evil, or a gain in the enjoyment of good, by doing wrong. In such case it is profitable, and instead of promoting bondage, frees from it, to be assured that the promise of our escaping evil, or obtaining benefit, by doing wickedly is all delusion; that the evils which we have the greatest reason to dread, will be found in that destruction which the government of God will execute on transgressors. "The way of transgressors is hard." But "great peace have they that love God's law, and nothing shall offend them." And though they may occasionally meet with trials in this excellent way, they need not fear, for God is with them there.

SECTION III.

Indifferent Speculations, and Miscellaneous Texts.

By indifferent speculations we refer to the labor of our learned friend on his theory of future punishment respecting the manner of its infliction. On this point he differs from some of the Endless-miserian Doctors, in-as much as he holds that the poignancy of future endless sufferings will proceed mainly from immediate and of course miraculous inflictions of torture, by the hand of God. He devotes more than thirteen pages to this point, arguing that if, as some of his brethren affirm, the punishment of eternity is to consist in the wicked being finally left to the

* " Argument,” pp. 19-32.

natural operation of their own evil principles and passions, and of their outraged consciences, they will at length become so callous to it from sameness as to be measurably insensible to suffering; and that, to prevent any such lulling of their pain, God will make it an important part of his administration to all eternity to blow the fire of their torment directly with his own breath, and pierce their souls with torturous instruments wielded by his own hand. We quoted liberally from this part of the Doctor's "Argument" in our Preliminary Observations, when disposing of his effort in his "Introductory Remarks" to sink the doctrine of endless punishment to the proportion in the whole economy of God which our courts and prisons bear to the interests of the whole state. It is entirely uncalled for that we should step aside from our main course to dispute with our opponent about the instruments and qualities of future punishment, until he gives us some sort of proof of the fact of future punishment itself. We have looked to him in vain, thus far, for any proof of such an economy; nor do the passages which he proceeds to quote in this connection make any reference to human condition in another state of being. We think that he himself could not have quoted them as affording any evidence in themselves of a reference to the future life. But presuming that he had proved the fact of a future state of punishment by the prominent texts which we have been considering, he uses these miscellaneous quotations for argument in favor of his views of the nature and manner of punishment there.

But as we have removed the false main position in respect to judgment and retribution, and planted ourself on the Bible position of judgment as an everexisting branch of the Divine government, the many thousands of Bible students who read this will per. ceive, as fast as they glance at our opponent's texts of this class, that they describe punishments administered by the government of God which was, and is, and is to be. So, then, strike out the Doctor's interpolation, "future," and he and I can read together, as members of one Bible Class, his Scripture lessons of punishment; and I can adopt his reading, comments and all, with a slight modification of a few words. The following is his paragraph, embracing his Scripture quotations and brief comments, from which even he drops his usual prefix of future to punishment:

"Now the Bible is continually representing the wicked as receiving from God positive inflictions, and not merely as being abandoned to themselves. Even when it speaks of many sources of misery which might seem to be natural consequences of their sin, it often represents these consequences as being administered by the direct agency of the Almighty. So that the two things seem to be combined. "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup." "Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver." "God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow and made it ready." These passages teach that sinners will not merely be left to the natural consequences of sin. The ideas of arrest, and of execution, are here presented; the transgressor is not left to himself, with merely his sin for his punishment. Then again we read-"Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him." "Yea, woe unto them also when I depart from them."