the life-thrill of their dishonored hosts. The whole earth shall be ploughed by the opening of graves to set their tenants free!

And though the learned sages of Athens pronounce it childish "babbling," Saddusees-Stoics-Epicureans hold it as a lie, and others regard it with contempt and stigmatize it as "the hope of worms;" yet, what is all our religion without the doctrine of the resurrection and a future life! The great province and intent of christianity, is to school and discipline us for a future existence. But where is its significancy if there be no resurrection? For “if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith also is vain." Yea, we are yet in our sins and in our blood, and they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished! But why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead? Cannot that Omnipotence which first fashioned us from the dust of the earth again build up the decayed tenement out of its constituent materials? Surely he can. The Scriptures declare that he can. The resurrection of Christ has demonstrated that he And that he will is the immutable decree of his council."For we know that our Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though worms destroy these bodies, yet in our flesh we shall see God."

VI. To the resurrection of the dead is to succeed the "eternal judgment." This is another fundamental doctrine of christianity. Judgment here refers to the administration of rewards and punishments. It is called eternal to designate the final and unchangeable character of those administrations. The necessity of such a final adjudication of human affairs may be very clearly shown.

The very nature and circumstances of the case require it. We are all rational and moral beings, and as such placed under a moral government. But how unequal is the present dispensation of things in relation to the merits and demerits of mankind? How often is virtue left unrewarded, and vice unpunished? How often are the guilty promoted, and the innocent made to suffer? And if there is to be no future retribution, where shall the injured be avenged, or the bloody criminal arrested in the triumph of his wickedness? If then God's moral character is to remain unimpeached, and the pillars of his throne kept up by an unswerving observance of the laws

which were published under its authority, it is plain that there will be-must be a future judgment..

Conscience too still lingering round her throne, shocked and outraged with the injustice of the world, points distinctly to a future judgment. Men may argue and equivocate on this subject as they please, and form whatever skeptical conclusions they please; but low in the secret chambers of every soul there is an indelible impression of the real truth. There is a voice in the heart which cannot be hushed, and which causes all the wily sophistry of the intellect to blush and cower. The fact is founded in the very laws. of nature, interwoven with the very framework of our being, and predetermined in the eternal arrangements of Deity-there must be a reckoning between every rational creature and its Creator.

Nor has Jehovah failed to declare it in his word. Long before the dawn of the christian era was it said by the sacred preacher, "God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be bad." Paul, as he thundered the revelations of the Gospel into the ears of the Athenian philosophers and judges, declared, "God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." And as the last tones of the Spirit's voice were dying on mortal ears, were not these words among the last and most solemn to which it gave utterance"Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render unto every man according as his work shall be!" Yea, already the streaming glory of his approach has shot across the deep darkness. of our world; and already the thunder of his charriot wheels is echoing over the distant spheres! The time is at hand when it shall be said, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." The sixth seal" is already opening; soon the mighty earthquake shall be felt," the sun become black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon become as blood, and the stars of heaven fall unto the earth, and the heaven depart as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island be moved out of their places, and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every freeman hide them

selves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and say to the rocks and mountains, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand!"

And what a day of awful revelations will that be! What secret sins, and midnight plots of undeveloped wickedness will then be brought to light. Hypocritic masks, and the dazzling flare of false pretences will then all vanish; and many a soul now reckoned as a saint-honest, and holy, and fit for heaven, will stand in the open view of all, covered and deformed by all the hideous ugliness of hell. From the hidden chambers of many an unsuspected heart, will be searched out the "evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies," &c., which lurked there in close seclusion from the gaze of men, and be published in the audience of the universe. The secrets of every character will be revealed, and histories of men reputed wise and good exhibited, which will look like the biographies of devils!

And what a day of confusion and dismay for the guilty. The conviction then of a Savior slighted-salvation spurned-time wasted-talents abused-heaven contemned-and the soul neglected-will transpierce the unregenerate with untold agony; whilst the contempt of the entire universe is heaped upon them in all its intolerable weight. Driven away in their wickedness, they then shall have

"No patron! intercessor, none!-Now past

The sweet, the clement, mediatorial hour!

For guilt no plea! To pain no pause-no bound!
Inexorable all! And all extreme!

And what a day of bitter separation will that be. Often have I tearfully thought upon the final division of the righteous and the wicked-of the tender ties which will then be riven-and the bitter tears which will then be shed. A noble poet exclaims

"Strange parting! not for hours, nor days, nor months,

Nor for ten thousand times ten thousand years;

But for a whole eternity!-though fit,

And pleasant to the righteous, yet to all

Strange, and most strangely felt! The sire, to right

Retiring, sees the son-sprung from his loins,

Beloved how dearly once! but who forgot

And are there not some who hear me now, whose most cherished ties will then be broken by an eternal separation from the object of your love? Are there none present who will there take the last lingering look at the countenance of parting friendship—there print the last affectionate kiss-and there take the last leave of the loved forever! The Lord save us all from the shame and anguish of the day of judgment !

LECTURE XIV.

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN.

Heb. vi. 4-8. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

IN announcing these words as the subject of a popular discourse, I am conscious that a dreary road and a heavy task lie before me. First, because of the great obscurity in which long and fruitless controversy has involved them; and secondly, because of the acknowledged difficulty attending the subject of which they treat.The thing itself, however, is so important, and the reward which is in reserve for him who shall succeed in giving a clear and satisfactory exposition of it is so brilliant, that I shall not suffer myself to be embarrassed by the probability of a failure, or by any fears of encroaching upon the authority of creeds or of councils. My object shall be, in a common sense way, (for common sense is always the best law of interpretation,) to present as far as I may be able, what I humbly conceive to be the obvious meaning of the text, and the true nature of the fatal deed of which it speaks.

The subject of the text, as must strike every one, is the unpardonable sin. The apostle explicitly declares it "impossible for those who were once enlightened, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance." It is the same fatal offense of which Christ, and John, and Paul have spoken in different portions of the Bible. The compilers of the marginal references which we find accompanying the Scriptures, have coupled the text with those passages which speak of the unpardonable sin; and all the circumstances of the case go on to show, that this is the particular subject which the apostle wished to bring to the view of his readers. The design of the apostle rendered the introduction of this subject at this stage of his argument very appropriate, and beautifully