assent to the truth of Christianity without hesitation. But have you reflected seriously how much is implied in this assent? It implies an acknowledgement on your part, (i. e. if you are still impenitent) that you are at this moment condemned to experience the wrath of God; that any hour you live, that wrath is liable to take effect upon your soul; that the Son of God has died on the cross to purchase for you a pardon; and yet that you live in the constant rejection of that pardon, notwithstanding all the love, and the grace, and the blood, which have been concerned in procuring for you the offer. Now then, I ask, dare you, as rational beings, thus trifle with Christianity? Dare you walk about on this earth, as if you were innocent? Dare you sport and trifle, as if there were no sentence of condemnation hanging over you, and not a cloud setting over your prospects, when the real fault is, that you are condemned; that you are liable to sin eternally; that you are rejecting an offered Saviour; and that you yourself fully acknowledge all this, in acknowledging that the religion of the Bible came down from heaven? I speak on this subject as to wise men: judge what I say. 8. Önce more: We are taught by the history which we have been contemplating, how delusive is the hope of the universalist.

Take the character of Judas as it was in the last moments of his life; and see whether you can discern in it any thing better than the elements of eternal torment. It is the very nature of sin to produce misery; just as truly as it belongs to a fountain to send forth a stream. Judas, at the moment of his entrance into eternity, was a sinner; and therefore must have had that in him which would produce suffering. Moreover, it is the tendency of conscience, when testifying of sin, to give pain ;-pain as we have already seen in this world, which sometimes brings with it complete desperation. Judas died in the full possession of a conscience, a conscience already awake, and which had begun, on this side the grave, to awaken the keenest agonies. A polluted nature and a guilty conscience, then, the two great sources of misery, Judas certainly had at the moment when he committed the fatal deed; and as there is nothing in death to change the character of the soul, being a mere change of physical existence, we may say with confidence that he had them, after the deed was done. Leaving out of view, then, the justice of God, which requires that sin should be punished in the future world, we may confidently infer from the fact before us that it is punished; and that it is punished too with tremendous severity.

"Yes," you say, "you admit there is a hell; but deny that it is an eternal hell." What meaneth, then, that aw

ful declaration of the Saviour, that "it had been good for that man if he had never been born? If Judas, at the most distant point in eternity which your imaginations can reach, were to be restored to the purity and bliss of heaven, and then, as a glorified immortal, were to run an everlasting round of ages amidst the glories and hallelujahs of the redeemed, rely on it he would be the gainer for having had an existence: the time would come, when he would have enjoyed ten thousand times more than he had suffered. Even the Bible does not―cannot, contain a more conclusive argument than this for the doctrine of the eternal punishment of the wicked.

But do you say that this doctrine is so dreadful that you cannot believe it? I answer, you have only to persevere in this very course, and you will learn its truth at no distant period, by the most appalling experience. The question is not, what you may wish to be true; nor what you may be led to conclude is true, from any general notions you may have of God, independently of his word; but it is simply this, "What saith the law and the testimony ?" And that says that the wicked shall go away into eternal punishment; and that the smoke of their torment shall ascend up forever and ever. You may indeed fashion your faith according to your wishes on this subject, and you may disbelieve the eternal suffering of the sinner, because (if the doctrine be true) it throws a darkness that can be felt upon your own path; but after all, I warn you that that doctrine is in the Bible; and that he who wrote it there, is as faithful to his threatenings, as to his promises.

Yes, dying sinner, yet unreconciled to God-I repeat, the Bible tells you of an eternal hell; and it tells you that you are exposd to it; and it tells you how you may escape it. Do you turn a deaf ear to the warning, and still cling to the old delusion, that this doctrine is too dreadful to be true; and that there is too much mercy in God to give up any of his creatures to such a tremendous doom; and do you resolve that you will hold fast the hope that if you are punished at all, the punishment will not be extreme, either in duration or degree? Then pardon me, if for once, I undertake to prophesy concerning your future doom. I predict that that dread slumber into which you have put your conscience, by so often doing violence to its suggestions, will last, with perhaps very temporary interruptions, to your dying day. I predict that there will be something in the clustering indications of approaching death, that will make you begin to question whether you have been wise in acting upon the supposition that there is no eternal hell. I predict that, when death actually takes you in hand, and brings you to the door of the pit, you will have put away from you

the last doubt, that you are entering that dreary abode for eternity. And, as one wo in that dark abyss rises after another in an eternal storm, as one vial of Jehovah's wrath is poured out after another, as long as Jehovah himself shall exist; as the dark caverns of hell echo and re-echo with an everlasting wailing; I predict that you will be there to share it all; and that you will look back, millions of ages hence, to this very warning, and curse the folly which led you to disbelieve that there was an eternal hell!

CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP.

I introduce the general subject of Christian Stewardship, with peculiar interest. May the writer, and the reader, both be guided by the Spirit of God.

The thought of many seems to be, that, while in other matters duty is a very definite thing, here it is altogether indefinite. The subject must indeed be discoursed upon, but only at random. It must be urged upon Christians, but rather in the way of rhapsody. And, then, they must be left to guess at duty as they can, and each do what, on the whole, seems right in his own eyes.

It is admitted that the subject is beset with difficulties. But whence do these difficulties arise? more, it is believed, from the earthly spirit which pervades the church, and a mistaken sentiment as to the object and purposes of life, than from any intrinsic subtlety appertaining to the subject itself.

I may not, indeed, even hope to draw the lines of truth and duty through the whole of this important subject; but if I may only provoke the more successful efforts of others, something will be gained.

We usually associate all our ideas of charity with the gratuitous use of property. But a man may make a gratuitous use of his time, his learning, or his influence, as really as of his property. This brings up a wider view of the subject; and it is this wider view, that I would now take. My theme is christian charity in general, as it relates to the use of whatever comes within the range of our stewardship.

I begin with this position ;-all that we have of time, of property, of intellect, of learning, or of influence, belongs, in the highest possible sense of proprietorship, to the Lord Jesus Christ.

To whom do universal nature, and universal being belong, if not to their Creator,-to Him, without whom they had not existed? The whole, and all the parts of that whole, whether mind or matter-whose are they? The nature of the case, reason, and conscience, force upon us the three-fold conviction that they are the Lord's. The Scriptures seal that conviction; "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein." "The sea is his, and he made it; and his hand formed the dry land." "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts." "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is mine." "What hast thou, that thou didst not receive?" Accordingly, when men withhold from God any thing which his service requires, he charges them with robbery. "Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." And when they ask "wherein;" his reply is, "in tithes and offerings." -When the Israelites brought their contributions to the building of the temple, David uttered the same sentiment,—“ who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. O Lord, our God, all this store which we have prepared, to build thee an house for thy holy name, cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own."To the same purpose, is that devout ascription so pertinent for all to use, "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory forever, amen."

I pass to a second position, which is this:-all that we have, of time, of property, of intellect, of learning, of influence, is to be used in sirict and implicit obedience to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Where is the document, in the book of nature or of revelation, which shows that he has put any part of his creation out of his hands? To whom has he yielded aught thereof, so that it is no longer under requisition to serve his designs? If to no one, then is his will first law, as to the use we may make of ourselves and of every thing we have. So says the moral sense of every man. Accordingly, Christ is represented under the character of a nobleman, and we as his servants, to whom he entrusts his goods, to be kept and used for him. "He said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. he called his servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said occupy till I come." This nobleman evidently considered the pounds as his, not only at the time he committed them to his servants, but as continuing to be his; so that with pro

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priety he might call for them on his return, as he did, and for the use made of them. The servants, therefore, were strictly stewards, and never any thing more than stewards. Here, then, as before, we have the concurrent testimony of the nature of the case, reason, conscience, and the Scripture. They press us with the conviction, that we are but stewards-that we, and all we have, are to be held implicitly subject to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I come to a third position:-It is the will of the Lord Jesus Christ that whatever we have of time, property, intellect, learning, influence-any or all of these, should be so used as to produce the greatest possible good;-in other words, should be made to produce effects of the best kind that can be produced by it, and to the greatest possible extent." For the correctness of this position, I make my appeal, first, to the known character of the Lord Jesus Christ, -secondly, to the whole tenor of revelation considered as expressive of his will,-Thirdly to the understanding and moral sense of every man.-What kind of effects, will you say God would have you produce-bad, or good? If you say good, (as I know indeed you do,) I ask, to what extent? Would he have the good the greatest possible;—or would he prefer a smaller measure of it, although the means of producing the greater, were already provided? There is nothing ambiguous or doubtful here. The answer of every conscience is clear and decided.

These three positions are entitled to be considered as axioms in morals; and it is safe to conclude there will be no difference of opinion respecting them. Let them rest, therefore, as first principles, having the entire consent of truth, while we go on to some further examination and conclusions.

There is supposable good, which it is the desire of the Lord Jesus Christ should be produced. That it might be produced, he created this world and peopled it. For the production of it, he now holds the world, with all its resources-intellectual, moral, and physical, under constant and unchanging requisition. He has let go his hold of nothing. For the attainment of this good, therefore, we are to employ whatever he commits to our stewardship. And when we make an appropriation of ourselves, or of aught we have, for other purposes than the good in question, we sin,-our hands are sacrilegious.

The inquiry now arises, what is the good in question? On this point, with as many as believe in the government of God, there will be no clashing of opinion. It is not temporal enjoyment, sensual pleasure and gratification, nor any thing