(Rev. xiv, 10, 11.) Surely this is something far different, and far more appalling, than extinction of being. They teach us that we must live on, and on, and on forever! that if lost no annihilation of being will ever come to relieve the soul of its agony, but that it shall continue to writhe amid the agonies of the second death, while the unending ages ro♬ on. 3. Finally, if the soul is to endure forever, its condition, in all the ages of the future, should deeply concern us now. Το this end should we seek the revelation of the life of God in the soul. "Everlasting progression and development are involved in our spiritual union by faith with and in him, who is Head over all. Mind answers to mind. Each of us must say, there was a time when I was not; but no man can say the time will ever come when he shall cease to be." "Immortality o'ersweeps All pains, all tears, all time, all fears-and peals Into my ears this truth: THOU LIV'ST FOREVER!" BYRON. Then may we close with the thrilling apostrophe of another to the soul: "Immortal spirit! let thy thoughts travel down the vale of coming ages, and view thyself still enduring, strong in the possession of eternal youth. Thou wilt then look around thee, and from the hights of eternity thou wilt see all the thrones, the kingdoms, the glories, the struggles, and the pains of earth forever vanished and still. Thou wilt seek in vain to behold from afar the wondrous triumphs of art, the renowned cities, the illustrious empires, and the fields of blood, where so much glory was won. The greatness of the mighty dead, and the pomp of the now living, will all have passed away, sunken into one promiscuous and eternal grave. The earth itself may revolve darkly and gloomily in its accustomed orbit; widelyspread solitude and desolation may pervade its once crowded scenes; but thou wilt still remain exempt from mutability and death; still enduring amid so much change, undying amid so much decay. No fearful disaster can quench thy torch of being; no lapse of ages diminish the freshness of thy youth! As lasting as the God who made thee, thou and He alike will outlive the old age and dissolution of the universe itself, and soar above its crumbling ruins, rejoicing in the progression of an endless and deathless duration!" х VII. DEATH. "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." GEN. ii, 17. "Death by sin." ROM. v, 12. "It is appointed unto men once to die." HEB. ix, 27. "The body without the spirit is dead." JAMES ii, 26. DEATH is a word pregnant with mysteries past conception, and with terrors past repression. It was first uttered in Paradise, conveying to the mind of man an elemental idea terrific in its character as it has become all-pervading in its influence. We discourse largely and loosely of change as one of the laws governing all created things; but this is not merely change; it is DEATH. The dread of death is as natural as it is universal. Like an appalling specter, it haunts every pathway of life and dims every vision of joy. O, Death! thou art indeed "the King of Terrors!" "The tear, The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier, And all we know, or dream, or fear Of agony, are thine!" What would have been the physical history of. man had he never sinned it is not easy to determine. It is supposed by some that he would have enjoyed the privilege of continued existence and happiness on earth. The tree of life, to which he would have had access, was at once a pledge of permanent being and happiness, and also a means of securing them. The fruit of this tree would, undoubtedly, have healed or averted every evil to which our physical nature might have been subject; it would have restored the natural waste of the animal system, now imperfectly restored by food and sleep, and preserved life through the longest periods of duration. Or, again, there is nothing inconsistent in the supposition that man might have enjoyed a long life here; and after a long series of years, when the faculties of his body and mind had acquired earthly maturity, by an easy transition, he might have been transferred to a holier clime, to pass through higher scenes of bliss, in his endless progression toward infinite perfection and happiness. How easy might have been the change! how glorious the transition! What unspeakable felicities would have enraptured the soul as every successive change brought it into nearer progression to the exhaustless Fountain of Goodness and Love! Man was evidently designed to fill a still more exalted sphere in the scale of being than that allotted to him here. Perhaps the race were designed to fill up the vacancy occasioned in heaven by that disastrous rebellion which peopled hell with angels. Can we wonder, then, that beings designed to fill up so glorious a place in the scale of existence should first have their faith and obedience tried, and their habits and characters formed, in a probationary state? But a probation implies a law, inasmuch as there can be no trial, no probation, without a system of discipline and govA law also implies a prohibition and a penalty. If, then, man was designed to fill up the vacancy in heaven occasioned by the fall of angels, and if he was placed under a law in his probationary state, can we wonder that to a violation of that law was affixed the same penalty which the fallen angels were themselves enduring? Thus it that when man was created and planted in the garden, which was to be the scene of his probation, the Divine law ernment. was was given, and the fearful penalty was affixed, "Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The violation of this command commenced a course of sinning and disobedience that blotted out the glories of our first Eden, and plunged our race from a sphere of exaltation and glory into one of suffering and ruin. Death, then, has become a part of the history of an immortal being. I. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH. The sentence of death for sin is expressed in these words: "Thou shalt surely die;" or, more literally, "dying, thou shalt die." This form of expression is peculiar and emphatic, denoting not only the absolute certainty of the punishment denounced, but also the gradual completion of it. "Dying, thou shalt die." In that day thou shalt become incurably mortal; thou shalt gradually but certainly die; all thy days shalt thou be tending to dissolution and death, without the possibility of escape or remedy. This sentence is literally fulfilled upon our race; for "as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." How wide and universal is the dominion death has established! The dark insignia of his power are every-where seen, and wherever living man peoples the earth there are to be found the monuments of his triumphs. No individual can stay his progress or elude his search. From the midst of the populous city and from the lonely glen; from the abode of luxury and from the hovel of poverty; from the bustling scenes of crowded life and from the lounging ranks of ease and idleness, he calls forth his victims to their appointed doom. No one may hope to escape. From the cradle to the grave the monster follows our footsteps with |