2. The death of which we have here spoken, is unquestionably the special and peculiar fruit or wages of sin to which the apostle referred in our text. For the death spoken of is placed in contrast with "eternal life;" and what, I beseech you, but eternal death can be the opposite of eternal life? I am aware that some tell us that such a death has no existence, except in the brain of the theologian. But you must know, as well as myself, that the future state. of the wicked is often represented as being different from that of the righteous-nay, the one is often placed in contrast with the other, and the same terms used to express the duration of each. If, then, the use of these terms, in the one case, affords any ground of hope that the joys of heaven will be of eternal duration; in the other, they afford deep and awful reason to fear that the woes of hell will be alike interminable and unceasing. You may as well tell me there is no heaven, as that there is no hell; or that the angels and God himself are but the creatures of poetic fancy, as that Satan and fiends of darkness have no essential existence. Does the Bible speak of the one, so it does of the other. Does it portray the unspeakable bliss of the saints in glory, it also speaks of the unutterable woes of the damned in hell-the horrors of the "second death."

3. But what is this second death? what language can describe it? What lofty conception can comprehend it in all its fullness? The mariner, with his plummet, can fathom the depth of the sea-the navigator can measure its expanse-but what line or plummet can fathom the bottomless ocean of eternal perdition? what navigator can take the aggregate of its wo? Inspiration only can give utterance to the fullness of this eternal death. It is an eternal banishment of both soul and body from the presence of God, and from the glory of his power-an eternal separation from the favor and enjoyment of God. And, if God be withdrawn from the soul, what is left to it but the "blackness of darkness for ever ?" It is not an extinction of being, but of happiness and hope-the destruction of both body and soul in hell. It is being cast into hell, where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched. It is being cast, with all his members, into hell; it is going into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. To the wicked the day of judgment is a day of wrath; for then

shall the Lord Jesus be revealed from heaven with the mighty angels; in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them which know not God, and that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night.

Such are the fearful and final wages of sin. Sad as is the picture of wo it exhibits, it is what the finally impenitent shall really suffer. Say not that the picture is colored and fancy-wrought; for the pencil that drew, and the fancy that wrought it, were those of inspiration. And if these are only the plain, solemn, and truthful announcements of the righteous retributions of offended Heaven, how ought the impenitent to take alarm, and escape from impending death!

4. Is it not the fear and apprehension of this death that clothes the hour of dissolution with such dread-that arms the "king of terrors" with such a fearful "sting?" How universal is the fear and dread of death! By how many mortals would a life of poverty, and toil, and bodily suffering, be gladly chosen, rather than to endure what is dreaded and feared in death!

"The weariest and most loathed worldly life,

That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment, can lay on man,
Is paradise to what we fear of death."

But repulsive as may be the wasting pain, the gasping agony, the utter dissolution and rottenness of the grave; hard as it may seem to be cut off from the society of those we love to open our eyes upon the light of heaven no more -to be incarcerated in that gloomy cell, which is penetrated by the beams of no sun, and cheered by the murmurs of no sound; sorrowful as may be the unavailing grief of bereaved friends, the heart-rending wail of those bound to us by ties that death only could sever-it is not the anguish of friends, the gloom of the grave, nor the agony of dying, that makes us dread death, and shudder at its approach. Whence, then, this shrinking from its cold embrace? Why this fear and alarm at its approach?

"But that the dread of something after death,

That undiscover'd country, from whose bourne
No traveler returns, puzzles the will!"

Why is it, but that the truth of God is foreshadowed by the appalling apprehensions of a guilty conscience? Why is it, but that conscience already apprehends the agony of the undying worm and the unquenchable fire? And if the premonition, the mere foreshadowing of this eternal death, be thus appalling, what must it be, when the sinner shall experience it, in all its fullness!

5. Permit me to pause with emphasis upon this subject -O, that I could impart to it that solemn emphasis, which its importance demands !—that I may present it with more distinctness and force to the impenitent before me.

Say not, sinner, let me earnestly and solemnly entreat you say not that this ruin shall not come nigh thee; for it may be that even now thou art standing upon the very verge of everlasting wo. The merest thread of being separates between thee and the realization of all the horrors of the second death. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked." Thou mayest hide thy sins and cloak thy follies from the sight and observation of man; but thy God is not deceived, and fearfully shall he call thee to account; nay, thy own conscience accuseth thee and bodes thy fearful doom. It raises its voice with solemn admonition and warning, and points thee to the solemn hour of Heaven's avenging retribution. And, if it thus reprove thee, notwithstanding all the influence of worldly interests, prejudices, and passions; how will it torment thee, when all these have died away! If the recollection of thy sin, thy dereliction of duty to thy God and to thy own soul, be thus poignant here, what will it be hereafter! If impending ruin fill thee with dismay, and blanch thy cheek to deathly paleness, what horror shall attend ruin realized! Though thou mayest stifle the voice of conscience here, and in folly forget thy sin, yet, presume not that it will be thus with thee hereafter. Thy soul shall be all uncovered to its sting; and shall stand unhoused, amidst that storm of divine wrath, which the Almighty shall rain upon the wicked. Memory shall never forget; conscience shall never die, and through the long, long ages of eternity, shall it continue to hold ever before thee the mirror of thy fol

lies and thy sins. Clearly, as if reflected in the sunbeams of eternal light, shall it upbraid thee for thy disobedience to thy God; thy want of care for thy soul; and the burden of thy lamentation shall be, that with thine own hand thou hast plucked down this fearful ruin upon thee; that upon thyself thou hast barred and bolted the massy gates of hell's enduring dungeon; that thou hast pointed the spear and aimed the shaft that now pierces thy soul with unending anguish. And to fill up to its very brim the cup of thy bitterness, to complete thy loathings of self, to give higher zest to the gnawings of the undying worm, thou shalt ever remember-the appalling truth shall be written in burning capitals upon the very walls of thy prison-house -that thou hast done all this "in spite of the Godhead slain," and while bleeding mercy wept over thee, and a compassionate Redeemer besought thy return to God.

But I must now close. I have endeavored to probe this moral disease, and trace it out into its final results. And now, it only remains for me to hold up the grand restorative; to proclaim that "there is a balm in Gilead, and a physician there" that though "the wages of sin is death," "the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

And while I turn to this glorious truth, new light from the highest heaven seems to break upon my mind. Here do I learn that the sinner may be pardoned and redeemed; the unholy be sanctified and saved; that death may be deprived of its sting, and hell disappointed of its prey. Here do I learn that though sin may rage, and death devour, the grace of God can give victory and triumph. Wide as they may have spread their ravages, so wide is the abounding grace and mercy of God; mighty as may be the dominion they have so long usurped, still more mighty and glorious is the dominion and power displayed in the person of Jesus Christ. O, the triumph and glory of the cross! There is in it an omnipotence, to break off the chains and thraldom of Satan, and exalt the soul to the knowledge and glory of salvation.

"Break off your tears, ye saints, and tell
How high your great Deliv'rer reigns;
Sing how he spoil'd the hosts of hell,
And led the monster death in chains!

Say, 'Live for ever, wondrous King!

Born to redeem, and strong to save!'

Then ask the monster, Where's thy sting?'

And 'Where's thy victory, boasting grave?"

But what madness can prompt the sinner to the rejection of this priceless gift; the only balm that can cure his spiritual malady; the only agency that can deliver from the power and dominion of sin and death? Is it a slight thing that the soul, endowed with powers and capacities which ally it to angels and to heaven, the soul that shall never cease to be and to suffer, shall perish in eternal night? O, "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!" "Be not deceived; God is not mocked. Whatsoever"-yes, "WHATSOEVER a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Life is the spring-time of our being; we go forth sowing seed; eternity is the season when the harvest shall be reaped, the fruit gathered in. The fruit of sin is eternal death.

I pray God to deliver us from the pollution and the practice of sin, that we may not gather this fearful harvest unto our souls, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SERMON V.

Salvation-Mysterious and Glorious.

BY REV. JAMES FLOY, A. M.,

OF THE NEW-YORK CONFERENCE.

"Which things the angels desire to look into."-1 Pet. i, 12.

THE natural inquiry, What are the things into which angels desire to look, or, as the original implies, upon which they intently gaze, is readily answered by the context. They are "the salvation of souls," "the sufferings of Christ," "the preaching of the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." These are the "things" which engage the attention of the first-born sons of light; these the "things" which constitute the subject of angelic study. Hence results the doctrine :