to the depths of perdition without struggling against conscience and the principles of well-being. A soul cannot rise out of perdition without struggling for conscience, and against acquired corruptions. Sin is a tre

mendous evil to the sinner, as well as to universal being. Its commission necessarily carries the sinner downward, and it cannot be escaped from without earnest and severe struggles. Returning to spiritual life among the lost may be somewhat after the analogy of restoration from drowning. Death by drowning is delusively easy; but the return to life is painful in the extreme, warranting the figurative language of the parables of Scripture. Still, even should a fallen spirit have to escape from perdition by a stair-case of fire, it would ascend through a lofty flight to a glorious immortality. The experience of passing through such an ascent will be of the utmost value in the future existence of such a spirit. Its education in the self-sacrifice of the Divine Being will be beyond computation.

4. St Peter tells us that Christ "went and preached to the spirits in prison, which were sometimes disobedient." Does not this mystical statement indicate that there are dispensations of mercy in the invisible world? In this view

of God's dealings we rise to a higher and more comprehensive understanding of the future state. We are able to see that if God bears with rebellious spirits for a longer period, He yet does not shut them up in endless despair— which condition would be to make them still more wicked, hardened, and confirmed in sin. It would perpetuate rebellion, and render the curse all the severer. Would this be compatible with infinite goodness and self-sacrifice, or a display of Sovereignty that would be glorifying to God?

5. The suffering of the sinner must necessarily increase with the bitterness of his enmity to God and the severity of the conflict it entails. Thus the sinner, even in this life, has no inducement from the possibilities of a future probation to disregard his present privileges. If he dreams of an easier method of turning to God in the next stage of his existence, he will only deceive himself the more. But, indeed, there is little or no fear of any sinner delaying repentance on this ground. It is the love of self that is the one great hindrance to repentThe birth-throes of a late repentance may be severer than those of an early conversion. If this be so even in this life, the agonies of the repentant soul will doubtless be

ance.

severer in the life to come. The miseries incidental to a sinful condition, and the struggle involved in rising through repentance out of the conflict of sin into harmony of life and relationship with God, may involve such an amount and duration of suffering as may fully explain all the figurative descriptions used in Scripture to describe the condition of the lost.

6. Late repentance can never regain the lost advantages of an early conversion. If Christ Himself came to earth to win the glory and joy of His Divine self-sacrifice, there must be in this world pre-eminent advantages for the disciple who imitates his Master. Still, if the sinner passes from a state of enmity into one of loving obedience, late in life, or in the world to come, he will realize the benefits of such a change, and will have all that is implied in Christ's declaration, that "to whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much."

I.

CHAPTER XII.

THE HIGHER EDUCATION AND

M

DISCIPLINE OF SOULS.

AN'S nature is the highest condition of finite existence, and is therefore capable of the highest education and discipline. But these do not consist in his being made a partaker of the attributes of the Uncreated Essence-for that, in the very nature of things, is an impossibility—but in his being made a participant of the Divine life, so as to be “filled with all the fulness of God." As his powers are illimitable in their development, his capacities for the reception of the Divine life boundless, and his capabilities for progress endless, there can be no limitations to his discipline in the immortal life.

2. The gradual disclosures of the mysteries of the Infinite to the limited capabilities of the finite mind is involved in the education and discipline of man. The deepest mystery in the manifestation of the Divine Being is the self-sacrifice of the Godhead. The training of man in the practical

experience of this mystery must of necessity be the primary element of the education and discipline of those immortal spirits which are to occupy the highest positions in heaven, and which are to be engaged in the grandest work of the eternal ages. If this were not to be, the profoundest part of man's moral and spiritual training would be lacking.

3. The most mysterious incident of the Divine government is the permission of evil. Do all that we can to comprehend this mystery, we cannot penetrate its cause. But we may perceive something of the why. We may perceive that this permission is preliminary and subservient to the self-sacrifice of the Godhead, and that thus is shown the great power of God in the training and discipline of spirits who are to realize all the fulness of the Divine life. And yet we cannot admit that it was necessary to the outcome of the depths of the Infinite Essence; for then evil would be a necessary element in the development of the Divine purpose, and would cease to be evil. But while we cannot penetrate the mystery, we may learn how subservient it is to the higher moral and spiritual training of man. If the loftiest display of the perfections of the Divine life be exhibited through the self-sacrifice of the Godhead, the