are the basis and measure of our responsibility. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin." Also Rom. ii, 14, 15. I said means of knowledge, for one may choose ignorance, as many do; but in the divine, as in human governments, ignorance of the law does not exculpate the transgressor. Our responsibility is proportioned to them. "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." The trafficker in rum, for instance, is more guilty now than twenty years ago, because he has more knowledge.

We have knowledge in a high degree, and are proportionally responsible. Every sermon we hear increases this responsibility.

The Bible takes it for granted that we have power to act according to our knowledge. Our consciousness proves it.

From these principles, so hastily glanced at, you see the sophistry and folly of those who claim to be irresponsible on account of,

1. Early education, associates, &c. What if you were wrongly educated? What if your associates led you astray? The right way is opened before you. You have evidence and motive sufficient to bring you right; and, if lost, it will be, not because you were brought up wrong, but because you would not be set right.

2. The inconsistencies of professors of religion. I admit and lament both inconsistencies and inaction; they are stumbling-blocks; but you are not forced to stumble over them into hell. You may be saved in spite of them, if you will. It seems to be a too common opinion that

ministers and Christians are responsible for the salvation of sinners, in such a sense as to relieve the latter of their responsibility. This is a wrong interpretation of Scripture. Even Ezekiel does not intimate that they who die in their iniquity on account of our unfaithfulness will not themselves be held responsible; but the contrary is plain from his very words: "That wicked man shall die in his ́ iniquity." We are required to use all the means of doing good according to our ability; you to make them effectual to the salvation of your souls. This is the broad ground on which you and I must stand or fall at the judgment. God grant it may there appear that I have faithfully done my part—that you have done yours.

II. Every man is himself the greatest gainer or loser by his actions.

It is on this account that the appeals and motives of the Bible are so overwhelming. It prescribes no duty, enforces no command, merely for the sake of others, but for our own good. Hence virtue is its own reward, vice its own punishment. The position may be proved,

1. By an appeal to facts. The virtuous man is a blessing to himself, to his family, friends, and society. Follow him in all the relations of life, and read the proof in letters bright as heaven. No one can tell the happiness which he may have caused, the wo he may have prevented; and the effects may extend through all time and eternity. When the righteous man is removed, you see and feel the darkness. Yet he himself is the greatest gainer, in the happiness of his family and friends-the welfare of the church and of society-the smiles of conscience, and the approval of God. What is the happiness of all whom he has benefited compared with the feeling, "I have done my duty, I have been the instrument of it all?"

So, in all these relations, the vicious man is a curse. No one can tell what good he has prevented, what evil he

has caused; and the results may be eternal. Yet he is the greatest loser. His victims may be innocent, and therefore happy. But the guilt is his, and this gives poignancy to every pang of remorse and fear.

2. By revelation. The holy man secures for himself heaven and all its inconceivable glories. There his capacities, ever enlarging, will be ever filled with happiness. There are no points of elevation or of bliss which he may not reach. He who was instrumental in his salvation may be there also; but he will deprive him of none of his joys, as a reward for his instrumentality. That reward will be ample in seeing the happiness of the convert. He will be a star in his crown which, while it addeth to its lustre, loseth none of its own glory; as Venus adds to the beauty of our system, but is no less beautiful herself.

So the wicked will reap death and hell; and their condition will be the reverse of that of the good in all respects. There will be no transfer of consequences to agents and abettors; they were accessories, we principals. God will see that wicked men and devils are fully punished for the interest which they have taken, and the aid which they have afforded in our destruction; but the severity of their punishment will not lighten ours. It will be no alleviation to us to see them suffer. Imagine, for a moment, an ungodly priest and his lost hearers in a world of wo! Hear their mutual reproaches and increasing groans! Ah! they lessen not each other's miseries, but constantly and for ever augment them.

Such is the awful responsibility under which we are all acting. We are exerting an influence for good or for evil, which may be felt through all time. After time we shall see its effects in eternity. At the judgment "every one of us shall give account of himself to God," and in its decisions upon our acts we shall be ourselves the

greatest gainers or losers. Think not that I have exaggerated the case. Think not to shuffle off responsibility. You cannot do it, while Jehovah sits upon his throne. Think not of favouritism on account of your peculiar lot; God shows none. Dream not of escape from consequences; God knows none.

XXXIX.

SURELY THOU WILT SLAY THE WICKED, O GOD.-Psalm cxxxix, 19.

HOLY men in all ages have had an unshaken confidence in the doctrine of the final punishment of the wicked. Hence they speak of this punishment as absolutely certain. They bring it to view as the great inducement to incline us to virtue. Now there is most assuredly some ground for this confidence, tenable or untenable; and inasmuch as we are deeply interested, it becomes us to examine it thoroughly. I ask you to bring to this examination not your desires and prejudices, but the Bible, and the eternal principles of moral government. Consider, then, that to punish the wicked God is pledged,

I. To his own nature.

God is infinitely holy; that is, such is his nature that he necessarily and supremely loves right, and hates wrong. "Shall not the Judge of all the world do right?" Hence this love and hatred are not arbitrary passions, but essential perfections. Take them from him, and you rob him of all that renders him lovely or glorious as God. Now, no perfection of Deity can be dormant, but must be active; that is, God must manifest his love and hatred to their appropriate objects. All his word and works declare that he does so; he smiles on angels, frowns on devils. Do you ask, in view of this, why he does not now show

his hatred to sin as fearfully as he ever will? Most fearfully did he show it in the atonement made by Christ. In consequence of that atonement and of the Saviour's intercession, mercy now rules, and God's anger does not now fall upon you. But these merciful provisions are for a season only, and when it shall have ended, no daysman will be found. Holiness requires that God should be just to himself as well as to man. Hence the least God can do with the finally impenitent is to banish them from his presence; else he would show complacency to that which he supremely hates. On the same principle it is due from a king to himself to banish from his court a traitor. But under God's moral government, banishment must be eternal despair. In eternity, to be out of heaven is to be in hell!

II. To his Son.

In Christ's sufferings, love of holiness and hatred of sin were awfully shown. At the fall, God had determined that man must die; this determination was made, not in anger, but from the nature of the case; that is, man had become unholy. So great was the Saviour's love of holiness and of man, that he consented to die that man might become holy, and consequently happy. Remember that the object of the atonement was to promote holiness; hence faith is the condition, as no man can exercise faith without becoming more or less holy. Christ did not die to bring us to heaven without holiness; he could not from his nature do so. He meant to leave in eternal misery all who would not be made holy. He assigned the conditions of salvation, and the time in which we may comply with them. The Father gave his Son to die as the only measure which should be adopted, and hence the sacrifice was offered. Study the Bible, and you will see it to be 80. Hence God stands pledged to his Son to see this plan fully carried out. If there be failure or deviation,