"The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”—John v. 28, 29.

THE Bible is our only source of satisfactory information respecting our condition in another world. Philosophy may throw out some dark hints and incite us to hope for immortality. But this is all that she can do. To revelation we are indebted for the only clear light which we possess on this subject.

A more important subject cannot arrest human attention. We find it hard to bear a few years of affliction, or a few hours of pain. With how much solicitude, then, must we inquire respecting our condition in that eternal world, when ages roll on in their unbroken and interminable series? We find a few years of happiness, or a few hours of enjoyment a priceless blessing. How deeply, then, must we feel interested in the possible enjoyments of eternity?

I. Let us, then, examine the instructions of the Bible respecting a future world. All are aware that the Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language, and the New Testament, for the most part, in the Greek. The Hebrews called the grave sheol. The Greeks called it hades. The English word grave, the Greek word hades, and the Hebrew word sheol, meaning one and the same thing. When the Hebrews spake of sheol, or the Greeks of hades, they meant only the world of the dead-the place of departed spirits, without any reference to their condition as happy or unhappy.

The New Testament writers call, the grave the place of departed spirits the world of the dead, hades. And by this term alone they neither expressed happiness nor misery. The good, when they die, go to hades; and the bad, when they die, go to hades. In other words, the good and the bad alike die, and go alike to the world of spirits.

Now the sacred writers also teach, that in hades, there is a place of rewards and a place of punishment. They teach that the good go to a part of hades where they are made happy, and that the bad go to a part of hades where they are made miserable; that in hades, that is, in the future world," some awake to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

It was necessary to give some name to these two different parts of hades. What name should be given to that part which was the abode of wo? They would of course assign to it some name expressive of that which is loathsome and awful. They naturally looked about them to see what object in this world was most abhorrent to them, and as

signed the same name to that part of hades which was devoted to suffering.

Near Jerusalem there was a deep valley into which all the rubbish and filth of the city was cast. The bodies of dead animals; decayed vegetables; the sweepings of the streets, and all the other filth which must unavoidably be collected in a populous city, were thrown to putrify together. Such a mass of corruption near the city would endanger its health by filling the air with deadly exhalations. In order to obviate this, continual fires were kept, that everything capable of being burnt might be consumed. Here the loathsome worm rioted unceasingly in the putrid carcases of animals, which were daily cast in for his repast. Here the fire was continually burning by day and by night, and dark volumes of smoke were unceasingly rolling up from this awful receptacle of impurity. It was a place full of abominations; and to the Jew, with his peculiar notions of ceremonial uncleanness, it was beyond expression revolting. This valley was called "Geenna," the English of which is "Hinnoin's vale."

Therefore, this name was affixed to that part of hades which was devoted to punishment, and it was called the geenna of hades. As the worst place which the Jew could conceive of, in this world, was called geenna, so he spake of the geenna of the future world, just as we now say, such a place is the Sodom of America, or such a man is a very Judas Iscariot.

Thus it is said," be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear fear him which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell," i. e., into geenna; for geenna is the Greek word here used, and not hades. Again: "It is better for ye to enter into life maimed, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into hell (geenna), into the fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched."

The imagery here, is taken from the ceaseless fires and the putrefaction of Hinnom's vale. In all these and many other cases, it is the geenna of hades which is spoken of. All alike must go down to the mighty empire of the grave. But as the metropolis of Judea, in its pride and its glory, had its receptacle for impurity and all uncleanness; as it had its valley, where the ceaseless flame consumed, and the worm rioted, and the smoke of its fires ever ascended, so shall there be in the world of spirits-in the New Jerusalem, in a still more awful sense, a vale of Hinnom, into which shall be cast all that offend or do iniquity; where the destruction shall be everlasting from the presence of the Lord; where the rioting worm shall never die; where the consuming flame shall never be quenched, where the smoke of torment shall ascend for ever and for ever.

II. There is, in the future world, a place of rewards. It was necessary that some appropriate name should be given to that place some name that would image to the mind elevation and bliss. What is

there upon which the human eye can fall, so majestic as the Heavens spread out above us? What is there more alluring to the imagination, than to rise from earth, and soar upon untiring wing through the skies? The future world has consequently its heaven of delight, where angels' wings glitter with plumage that the bird of Paradise never rivalled; where music, more melodious than was ever warbled from the sweetest songsters of the forest, is borne upon the fragrant breeze, from harps of gold, and from blest voices. The redeemed of Christ shall spread a wing that never tires in this bright Heaven. The victim of unrepent⚫ed sin, cast into the Hinnom's vale of the future world, shall be devoured by the undying worm, shall be burned by the quenchless flame, and the smoke of his torment shall ascend not for a few days only, but for ever and ever.

Such is the Scriptural doctrine of the future world. It has its Hell and its Heaven. The one is the abode of the devil and his angels, the other is the capital of creation's monarch,-the abode of Holy angels, and of purified spirits.

III. This world is the world of probation. We are here maturing for hell's dark valley of fire and worms, and all impurity, or for Heaven's mansions and songs. At the judgment, which comes after death, the sentence is to be pronounced which consigns us to the one, or elevates us to the other. Heaven's glories shall never wane; the angel's wing shall never tire; the song of praise shall never cease. And he who goes down to hell's depths, will find that the worm never dies and the fire never shall be quenched. There will be different degrees of remorse in hell and different degrees of elevation in Heaven. But the fiend and the seraph are alike immortal. The image of God's eternity is stamped even upon the devil's soul.

Christian ministers are sometimes accused of trying to terrify sinners to repentance by exhibiting distorted and exaggerated representations of the pains of hell. But to give an exaggerated description of the weight of endless wo, is impossible. The powers of human language have been absolutely exhausted by the pen of inspiration in describing the horrors which await the wicked in the eternal world. Language cannot express more than the sacred writers have expressed. No imagination can conceive imagery more terrific. The hell of Homer and of Virgil is tame indeed compared with the retribution which the Bible reveals as awaiting the impenitent beyond the grave.

When the mind contemplates the lost spirit "scarred with the sword of justice, and wan with despair," dwelling in devouring flames, with the devil and his angels for his associates, and groaning beneath the burden of eternal chains, it feels, at once, that language can describe nothing more fearful-that the imagination cannot penetrate a region of thicker gloom.

Some of you may say that there is no pleasure in hearing such a sermon as this; it is replete with horror. The Christian minister is not commissioned to proclaim pleasant sermons; but to warn of judgment,

and to entreat sinners to flee from the coming wrath. If the exhibition of these truths is so painful to our feelings now; if we cannot bear even to hear God's message respecting the doom of the finally impenitent, what will be our feelings when these terrors, in their material reality, flash upon our eyes, and we are enduring, in bodily presence, this just and awful doom?

Here you have a true picture of your situation in the future world, unless through Christ you obtain redemption. And into these scenes you are liable any day or any hour to be plunged. Death stands ready at your door, and at the corner of every street; and when you least expect it, his dart may pierce you. Is it then needless to entreat you to awake from sleep, and to prepare to meet your God?

Christian, are you aware of the merited doom from which Christ has rescued you? Oh! what would now be your prospects were it not for a Saviour's love? And are you indeed ransomed from hell? Is the sentence of your condemnation reversed? Can you look with composure upon the lowering storms of eternity, feeling that you are secure from their fury? Happy, happy Christian; the blood of atonement has marked you as redeemed; the image of God is replaced upon your soul; the love of every spirit now winging its heavenly flight is extended to you with fraternal warmth.

Have you a living faith? Do you believe that you are an heir of Heaven? Then, every day is a day of happiness. In faith you have a cure for every human ill. It dispels every cloud. It disarms every affliction.

"For earth hath no sorrow
That heaven cannot heal."

PASTOR OF THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NORTHERN LIBERTIES, PHILADELPHIA.

DEATH DREADFUL TO THE UNGODLY.

Gather not my soul with sinners.-Psalms xxvi. 9.

THERE is something in death from which human nature instinctively shrinks with dread and horror. Come in what form it may come attended with all the alleviating circumstances which sympathy and the assiduities of friendship can impart, it is still armed with terrors which neither reason, fortitude, nor philosophy can dispel. We may speculate upon the nature and the necessity of death, and summon all our energies to meet it with calmness and composure. But when we see the emaciated form, the ghastly countenance, and the dying strife, we feel our courage fail, and shrink from the approaching conflict. It does not reconcile us to our lot that the generations who have preceded us, have been swept away by this invincible foe. The power of death as felt by others, and felt by ourselves, is so entirely different, that we feel the same anguish and dread as though we were its first victims. We cannot familiarize our minds with this event, so as to feel no misgivings or concern when we see it approaching. There is in it something so stern and inexorable, something so repulsive and abhorrent to our nature, that the more we see of its ravages, the more we dread to fall under its power. Nor is this revulsion of feeling confined to rational beings, but it extends to the animal tribes universally. You have heard their moanings and doleful cries when one of their own kind has been struck down in death. They feel, apparently as well as we, that it is the rebuke and curse of God inflicted on account of sin.

But there are circumstances which vastly augment the terrors of death, and render it a scene ten-fold more dismal and frightful than it is naturally or necessarily. It is to these the inspired penman had special reference, when he offered the petition, " Gather not my soul with sinners." In his time, as well as in our own day, death was doing his dreadful work. All classes felt his cold and iron grasp, and withered beneath his stroke. Some, as they passed away, were cheered with the hope of a glorious immortality, while others had fearful forebodings of weeping, lamentation and wo. He was conscious that "no man has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and that there is no dis