and immortal essence it courts the skies, shaking almighty defiance to your lakes of fire, deaths, brimstones, hells, seven headed beasts, and the great dragon besides.

That the lake of fire cannot refer to a place of suffering in the future world is most apparent from the nature of many things which are said to be cast into it. It is said that death, and hades, and the beast were cast into it. These surely are not subjects of endless suffering. Death is a negation-an absence of life; hades is not an existence, but a state. These are incapable of endless suffering. And then the beast-poor beast! to be made immortal just for the sake of being eternally burnt, with the seven heads, ten horns and all. And then the unhabpy beast "was cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone." The false prophet was also cast alive into the lake of fire-prophet and beast went down together, alive bodily, in flesh and blood into the lake.

Verily men make beasts of themselves by referring such scenes as these to the spiritual world!

Nor have they the least authority for committing such a profanity in the sacred Scriptures. They nowhere represent that the figure of fire or lake of fire refers to the scenes of another world. This however is a frequent figure to represent great national and temporal destructions. Ezekiel sets forth the temporal destruction of the Jews by their being "thrown into a furnace of fire." xxii. 17-22.

Malachi foretells similar events by "the day that shall burn as an oven." iv. 1,

Isaiah describes the fall of Assyria by the same figure. xxxi. 9.

That the lake of fire in Revelations also signifies earthly and temporal destructions is evident from many considerations beside those already named.

6

Those who were cast into the lake were alive'they were tormented day and night. And the Revelator declares repeatedly that he was describing events that were 'shortly to come to pass "The time is at hand." And in the conclusion of the vision he says, surely I come quickly."

66

6

The book of life' in Revelations evidently signifies the book, or record which contained the names of the apostles and their followers.

It undoubtedly has this meaning in 4th of Phillippians "And I entreat thee also, true yoke-fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers, whose names are in the book of life." Dr. Clark's note on the book of life in this text shows that we may under ̧stand it to mean the roll or parchment which contained the names of the followers of the apostles.

*

1 Peter iii. 12. "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ear is open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil."

"You will perceive from this text, that men are divided into two classes, the righteous and the wicked; and the Lord has declared that he will pour out his wrath upon them that are evil."

* The persecutors of these Christians, those whose names were not enrolled among them, were to be cast into the lake of fire, which we have seen is a familiar figure in Scripture of great temporal calamities.

Universalists believe this passage when interpreted in the strictest manner the language will possibly bear. To say that the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, means that they are the objects of his constant blessing. While "his face is against the wicked," which signifieth that they are the objects of his chastisement.

But in what way does this effect the question, whether all men shall finally become righteous? It does not belong to the gentleman to prove that the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, or that the face of the Lord is against the wicked; for this Universalists believe. But his task is to show that all men will not finally be righteous, or that some men will be endlessly wicked-that is the point for him to establish.

His text in no way reaches this point. The language is in the present tense. And if he had taken the pains to read the two verses which precede the text he could never, unless he is absolutely insane, have thus applied it. "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let . him seek peace and pursue it"-then follows the text

"For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, but the face of the Lord is against the wicked." The only reason the apostle gives, why we should eschew evil, and the only reward which he promises our righteousness is that we will love life and see good days."

No. 3.

CHAPTER V.

The face of the Lord against the wicked.—No change after death. The character of God.-Those who sleep in the dust of the earth awake to shame and everlasting contempt.-Gahenna-fire.-Luke xii. 4, 5.-Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, &c., &c.

"If God regardeth the children of men he will surely fulfil his promises to them. The characters that men form here, they will carry to the eternal world; for there is no device nor knowledge in the grave to which all are hastening."

Well, we surely are as willing to believe this as our self-styled orthodox brethren can be. If all men are to possess hereafter the same characters they sustain here, we have no more to fear than our neighbors; nor have we as much, for they themselves acknowledge that for integrity, virtue, and intelligence, Universalists are not behind any denomination in the land. And if we carry these characters to the eternal world, we shall not be very bad off there, assuredly. We ought not to quarrel with our enemies for establishing doctrines which, if true, will give us a more honorable position in eternity than they themselves can justly claim. Give Universalists the same characters there which they have here, and though we should not be what God has

promised to make all men, yet we have less cause for alarm than our opposers. If a man wishes to keep company with the great bankrupts and swindlers in this city, he would make a great mistake by joining the Universalist Church.

How

could he have

that such was to be And how can Br. Lane

But the gentleman does not believe himself in the statement that "the characters men form here, they will sustain in eternity." That would establish, beyond dispute, the idea of Universal sin in the eternal world. An apostle says, "If we say we have no sin, we decieve ourselves, and the truth is not in us." And St. Paul confessed that even in his holiest hour evil was present' with him. Romans vii. 21. endured this abominable dogma his character to all eternity? endure his own dogma? It is understood that he has grown quite spiteful and angry of late; which character according to himself, he must possess in eternity. A heaven of spiteful christians will be a rich state for the saints of God, will it not? What an amiable figure the murderous author of Presbyterianism, John Calvin, will make in heaven, if he has carried the same character there which he possessed on the earth, to the shame of humanity and the delight of devils. And then what a noble phalanx of Gospel warriors, with their hands red with the blood of a million of Catholics will the thousands of Protestant saints make as they proudly tread the golden pavements of the New Jerusalem, waving in their awful hands banners of the blest inscribed 'No change after death!'-A sweet picture for Gabriel's pencil.