structible as the soul itself. "Reason and Revelation agree, then, in asserting that absolute forgetfulness, or obliteration, is impossible; and that all the events of our history are written in our living spirits, and, whether seen or unseen, will there remain forever, unless removed by the act of a merciful Omnipotence! It is true that a thousand incidents will spread a vail between our present consciousness and the record on the soul; but there the record rests, waiting the judgment of God." The power of reminiscence slumbers, but does not die. At the judgment-day memory will awake; it will summon up thought and feeling from its hidden recesses, till, as upon a sheeted canvas, the whole history of the past shall be hung up for the inspection of the soul.

2. That God has instituted conscience not only to enable us to perceive duty, and prompt us to its performance, but also as an instrument of punishment, is abundantly evident, even without any light of Revelation.

"Go where you will, turn over the pages of this world's history, and the natural dread of an accusing conscience will be found to have been the rod of terror in all ages of the world. No man will or can long abide the action of self-reproach."* Remorse is a fearful word; when written upon the soul it is the precursor of despair. What will not a man do, and to what will not he flee, to escape from the inner pangs of remorse? Its sting is like that of the scorpion; it makes the soul a desolation. "Think not," says Cicero, "that the guilty require the burning torches of the Furies to agitate and torment them; their own frauds, their remembrance of the past, their terrors of the future-these are the despotic furies that are ever present to the mind of the impious." "Could the sinner fly from himself, could he obliterate the memory of the past, could Dr. Hibbard's sermon in the Methodist Episcopal Pulpit.

1

he forget for a moment what he is, his case would not be altogether destitute of relief. But this can never be;

'He bears his own tormentor in his breast;"

and that worm dieth not. The remembrance of what he was, and what he should have been-what he now is, and must forever be, haunts him like specters of the injured dead. The hours of misspent time now repeat their solemn knell; the neglected mercies, the unheeded admonitions, the tender sympathy and counsel of pious friends, the opportunities of repentance, the half-formed purpose of reformation-all that he has done, and all that he has left undone, now glance before the mind, and awaken the bitter lament-' How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!'"

"So do the dark in soul expire,

Or live like scorpion girt with fire;

So writhes the mind remorse hath riven,
Unfit for earth, undoom'd for heaven;
Darkness above, despair beneath,
Around it flame, within it death!"

3. And now, from these dark scenes of wretchedness and guilt, of horror and of despair, exhibited in this life, let us cast our glance into the future; let us boldly lift up the curtain, and, from our eminence of mercy and of grace, look down upon that abyss of darkness and of death, whose victims "have no rest day nor night." We have marked the horrors of conscience for sin in this life; but if such be the compunctions of the conscience for one sin, if such be the agony of one hour, how must the sinner be overwhelmed when the recollection, not of one sin, but of a life of iniquity, shall press upon his soul, and press upon it forever! If such be the agony of a moment, what shall be the agony of that age, that ceaseless age of horror, that shall succeed a life of folly and of sin? Conscience, crushed, weighed down under the rubbish of human folly

and the leaden weight of human crime, in the dread day of eternity undergoes a fearful resurrection in its tremendous energies. Its thousand stings pierce with consuming, ceaseless, remediless remorse. Turn, writhe, and flee as may the damned soul, the Gorgon terrors of conscience, more frightful than the flames of hell, still stare him in the face, still hold up the mirror of his follies and his sins, still upbraid his rejection of a Father's mercy and a Redeemer's blood. This, this is the burning of the fire that is not quenched, the gnawing of the worm that dieth not! Beyond this we need not look to inquire in what the misery of the lost shall consist.

But is there no remedy? Shall the miserable soul thus loathe existence, and pant for annihilation forever? Shall the frightful action of a ruined and disordered intellect never become stagnant in the pool of death? Shall memory, thus running back to past sins and follies, never wear out by lapse of time? Shall the eye of conscience never become dim with age, its voice never become silent through plenitude of years? Sinner, canst thou turn back the river to its source? Canst thou remove from their foundations the granite bulwarks of the everlasting hills-those pyramids of the Almighty's power? This mayest thou do sooner than abrogate the laws of mind; for they are immutable and eternal. Thou mayest break the bands of adamant, thou mayest hold the elements of nature harmless at thy feet the willing ministers to do thy bidding; but thou mayest not enter into the secret chambers of the soul to annul its laws or to change the conditions of its being! Are these the results of sin-these the retributions of eternity? Then let each one of us pray, "Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with ungodly men. My soul, come not thou into their secret, and unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united!"

XVI.

HEAVEN; OR, THE HOME AND AVOCATIONS OF THE BLESSED.

"We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 PET. iii, 13.

"A city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." HEB. xi, 10. "Ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance." HEB. X, 34.

"I go to prepare a place for you." JOHN xiv, 3.

"We have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 2 Cor. iv, 18.

"And there shall be no night there." REV. xxii, 5.

HEAVEN is a theme of profound interest to the Christian believer. Dimly seen in the visions of his faith, yet is it looked forward to as his eternal home. A pilgrim and a stranger, he desires "a better country, that is, a heavenly." Amid the crumbling ruins of earthly hopes, he looks forward to "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." The more perfect his knowledge is of that "better country," and of that "foundation-city," the more vital and realizing will be his faith.

The attempt to gather up and to place in clear view the facts revealed concerning the heavenly state, embodies a holier purpose than the mere gratification of human fancy. Vague and unreal views have ever been the bane of the Christian life. If we can but realize that heaven is real, as earth is real; that it is not a strange land, but one clothed with scenery like our own-only a thousand times more beautiful; that the dwellers there are not strangers, but our kindred and friends-still human-glorified hu

manity we shall catch inspiration from so sublime a view; the gloom of the dark valley will disappear; and we shall realize that faith is the substance of things hoped for. For practical ends, then, should the Christian seek to penetrate this great mystery of the unseen and eternal.

In regard to our future being-its conditions, associations, and avocations-our only certain knowledge is derived from the Revelation of God. Science may unvail the hidden elements of nature which seem to have reference to another and a higher state of being. Philosophy may suggest its analogies and build up our hopes. The instinctive intimations of immortality may be strong in the human soul. But the true interpreter of all these is God's own Revelation. And when thus interpreted, their teaching is sublime. They give the response of nature and reason to the oracles of the living God, showing the true harmony that exists between the two.

There is a somewhat general impression that all revelation concerning heaven and the condition and avocations of the redeemed, is vague, and of doubtful import. Nothing can be more opposed to fact, more pernicious in effect, or more unjust to God. With our limited faculties, blunted by sense and sin, we poorly comprehend what is revealed. But a careful analysis will assure us that the light shed upon the subject in the Bible is not doubtful in its character, nor does it lack either comprehension or minuteness. If heaven is not unvailed to the full vision of sense, neither is it concealed from spiritual, nor even intellectual apprehension. We may comprehend enough of it to constitute a sure foundation for our faith, to inspire ardent longings, and to call forth earnest endeavor in the Christian life. Even if we can not learn all we desire, the study of what is revealed and the acquirement of what may be known will prove a source of unmeasured comfort.