es and
their gold cannot save them. Death can as easily find his way into the
mansions of the rich as into the cottages of the poor, and the rich
shall turn to the same corruption, and soon, like the poor, be
undistinguished from common dust, and be unknown.

"5. We should not envy the condition of the rich.

"On slippery rocks I see them stand,
And fiery billows roll below.

"6. We should strive for a better inheritance, than can be possessed in
this life.

"'Now I esteem their mirth and wine.
Too dear to purchase with my blood,
Lord 'tis enough that _thou_ art mine.
My life, my portion, and my God.'"

"7. The sufferings of the wicked in hell will be indescribably great.
Think what is represented by _torment_, by burning flame, by
insupportable thirst, by that state when a single drop of water would
afford relief. Remember that all this is but a representation of the
pains of the damned, and that this will have no relief, day nor night,
but will continue from year to year, and age to age, and without any
end, and you have a faint view of the sufferings of those who are in
hell.

"8. There is a place of suffering beyond the grave, a hell. If there
is not, then this parable has no meaning. It is impossible to make
anything of it unless it is designed to teach that.

"9. There will never be any escape from those gloomy regions. There is
a gulf fixed--_fixed_, not moveable. Nor can any of the damned beat a
pathway across this gulf, to the world of holiness.

"10. We see the amazing folly of those, who suppose there may be an
_end_ to the sufferings of the wicked, and who on that supposition
seem willing to go down to hell to suffer a long time, rather than go
at once to heaven. If man were to suffer but a thousand years, or even
_one_ year, why should he be so foolish as to choose that suffering,
rather than go at once to heaven, and be happy at once when he dies?

"11. God gives us warning sufficient to prepare for death. He has sent
his word, his servants, his son; he warns us by his Spirit and his
providence, by the entreaties of our friends, and by the death of
sinners. He offers us heaven, and he threatens hell. If all this will
not move sinners, what _would_ do it? There is nothing that would.

"12. God will give us nothing farther to warn us. No dead man will come
to life, to tell us what he has seen. If he did, we would not believe
him. Religion appeals to man, not by ghosts an