doubtless haunt his waking and his sleeping hours, and he would find no rest till God, by his Spirit, had spoken peace to his affrighted soul.  And then, long as life lasted, it would be his daily subject of grateful thanksgiving to his gracious long-suffering Lord, that he had borne with his iniquities, and had not cut him off in the midst of his sins: but through the Divine mercy he was allowed on earth “to praise the Lord with joyful lips,” instead of “in hell, lifting up his eyes, being in torments.” [31]

But such a visit to the place of condemned spirits is not necessary to learn all that in our present state of being it concerns us to know.  The volume of inspiration has revealed the awful truth, that an eternity of torments awaits the condemned in a future world.

Will not, then, this suffice to rouse thoughtless and sinful men to a sense of danger?  The judgments of the Almighty now upon the land; death approaching many under a fearful form; the presumption and sinfulness of trusting to a late repentance; the danger of the infliction of judicial blindness; the horrors of a guilty death-bed; the torments of the damned, have all been urged as so many calls to repentance, and may God accompany them with his grace, that they may not be urged in vain; but all of these equal not the awfulness and terribleness of an eternity of torment.  There is something overpowering in the idea of unmitigated unmitigable woe; it is so terrific, that it astounds, it is so vast, that it overwhelms the mind: for the finite faculties of man cannot grasp eternity: they are lost in the maze of millions of years rolling on in endless succession.  But if there be any who have tost, for one night, on a bed of suffering; any who have experienced, for one hour, the racking torture of intolerable pain; let them ask themselves how they would endure, in the immensity of endless time, “the worm which dieth not, and the fire which is not quenched.”

May this awful consideration have its due weight upon every reader; may those who have not yet been “turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,” obtain grace to seek pardon and peace through the Saviour who brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel; that, through Him they may escape “the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” [32a]

“Knowing, therefore, the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men,” [32b] says St. Paul: who afterwards adds, “Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled unto God.” [32c]  It is thus the Christian minister declares the denunciations of Divine vengeance, and the certainty and eternity of Divine punishments, that he may prepare the way for a joyful acceptance of the offers of Divine mercy.  This two-fold duty of the ministerial office, is beautifully described by Cowper:

“There stands the messenger of truth, there stands
The legate of the skies!  His theme divine,
His office sacred, his credentials clear.
By him the violated Law speaks out
Its thunders: and by him, in strains as sweet
As angels use, the Gospel whispers peace.” [33a]

The dispensations of the Almighty are at once the inflictions of his displeasure, the warnings of his love, and the invitations of his mercy: to every sinner they address the enquiry, “Despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God?” [33b]  May the Almighty give his blessing upon the afflictive visitation He has sent upon this land, that sinners may be roused to a sense of their danger, and brought to embrace thankfully the offers of pardon and salvation, made through Christ Jesus our Lord!

The Holy Scriptures present at once the most earnest calls to repentance and the most gracious offers of forgiveness.  “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” [34a]  “O house of Israel, are not my ways equal, and are not your ways unequal? saith the Lord.  Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God.  Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin.  Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart, and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God.  Wherefore, turn yourselves, and live ye.” [34b]  “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” [34c]

Such are some of the invitations of the Holy Scriptures to turning and calling upon God.  Let us, then, suppose the case of one who is alarmed by the Divine threatenings; who, conscious of his guilt, sees as it were the gulf of perdition yawning beneath his feet; but is deterred, by a sense of the heinousness of his sins, from seeking the pardon which he despairs of obtaining.  How is he to be addressed?  The love and mercy of God, as shewn towards a guilty and perishing world, in the mysterious, but most gracious, plan of redemption, through the Saviour, must be pointed out, and largely dwelt upon.  Under the severer dispensation of the Law, amid the awful splendours of its promulgation, the Lord was proclaimed to be “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the