trust in His sacrifice, that sacrifice which was once offered on Calvary, and which, as our High Priest, He lives to present for us in the heavenly sanctuary. And the arrangements of the Church should include a provision for the mutual exhortation of believers, as a branch of Christian communion, and as specially conducive to our perseverance in the Christian life. Thus the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, after exhorting them to hold fast the confession of their hope that it waver not, for He is faithful that promised,' adds, ' And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as ye see the day drawing nigh' (x. 23-25). And in an earlier part of the Epistle he writes, "Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God: but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called To-day, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin : for we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end' (iii. 12-14).

It is an encouraging consideration, also, that God Himself watches over the circumstances of our probation, and so orders the course of events, and so restrains our spiritual foes, that our trials shall never exceed the limits of our strength. Thus St. Paul immediately subjoins to the solemn warnings which he addresses to the Corinthians, the cheering declaration, 'There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it' (1 Cor. x. 13).

6

Thus, then, it is our privilege to stand unmoved in our Christian profession, and constantly to advance in spiritual affections. If we take unto us the whole armour of God,' and 'continue instant in prayer,' we shall be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.' Holding fast our faith in Christ, and maintaining the spirit of humble and entire

devotedness to Him, we shall be found in Him' when our summons comes. Kept by the power of God through faith,' we shall attain at last the perfect 'salvation' which He has provided for His people. Our probationary life, indeed, will close amidst the languor and humiliation of the final conflict; bnt the last enemy will be divested of his terrors. With the Apostle Paul we shall be enabled to exclaim, 'O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law: but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Cor. xv 55-57).

SECTION V.

THE FUTURE LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

THE CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH.

N an earlier Chapter, when considering the subject of Natural

which we possess independently of revelation. The powers of the human mind, and especially its power of self-control, show that it is, in its own nature, distinct from the body, though in the present state most intimately united to it, and to a large extent dependent upon it; and thus they create a presumption that it may exist, when its connection with the material organisation which it actuated is dissolved. But a far stronger evidence is afforded by the moral nature of man, and by the fact to which our conscience bears witness, that we are living under a moral constitution, the grand feature of which is retribution. To cite again the impressive words of Professor Wace, ‘It is the characteristic of conscience to warn a man of a future judgment even when he escapes all visible penalty. The conviction it enforces is not merely that certain consequences will follow our evil deeds, but that we deserve certain penalties, and that we must expect them to be inflicted because we deserve them. It is a conviction, in other words, that we are responsible, and that we shall be held to our responsibility.'

But the great truth of a future life is placed beyond a doubt by the revelation which God has given to us. In the Scriptures of the Old Testament there are many passages which clearly imply that the human soul continues to live when the body dies, that the future state is one of happiness or of suffering, according to the character and conduct of men in the present life, and that God will at length bring all men into judgment before Him. And when we look at the teaching of the ancient Scriptures in the light shed upon it in the New Testament, we find this doctrine intimated in many passages in which it is not expressly affirmed; and we are assured that a better life to come was an object of faith to the patriarchs, and sustained them in their labours and trials. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, more particularly, this truth is emphatically presented to us. Having spoken of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, together with Sarah, the writer says, 'These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city' (xi. 13—16).

But on the subject before us we have the explicit teaching of our Lord Himself. In all His discourses He recognised the truth that this life is introductory to a future life far different in character, and marked especially as one of retribution. To a few of His declarations we may now advert.

His parable of the rich man and Lazarus affirms, in the clearest manner, the truth which we are considering. • And it came to pass that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom: and the rich man also died, and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and

Lazarus in his bosom' (Luke xvi. 22, 23). And the separation between the two was irreversible. Abraham is represented as declaring, in reply to the appeal of the rich man, ‘And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they which would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us' (ver. 26). No words can teach us more distinctly that the soul of man consciously exists when it leaves the body,-that it passes into a state either of happiness or of misery, and that its condition is then determined.

In the parable of the unjust steward, which was apparently delivered just before this, there is a remarkable expression which shows how the doctrine of a future life moulded the phraseology of our blessed Lord. Applying to our position as stewards the lesson of forethought as to the future, that forethought, however, being exercised in accordance with the high principles which should regulate the conduct of the sons of the light,' the Saviour says, 'And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles' (Luke xvi. 9). Thus He charges us faithfully to employ that worldly property which too often leads the soul away from God and is perverted to unhallowed uses, so that they who are blessed by our bounty and watched over by our care may welcome us, when our change comes, into the everlasting abodes of peace and joy.

We may next advert to our Lord's conversation with the Sadducees, when they sought to perplex Him with a case which, in their view, would introduce confusion into the relations of the future life. First of all, He pointed out that those relations are different from those of earth: Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven' (Matt. xxii. 29, 30). And then He proceeded to argue that the gracious announcement of God, recognising Himself as the covenant-God of