of general application to all human beings; a law applying to single
persons, and to persons in the aggregate.

In the Prophet Amos we read a message from God to Judah, "Thus saith
the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not
turn away the punishment thereof." This means, if I mistake not, Judah
has committed some two or three gross sins, and I was ready to turn
away the punishment, had there been a sign of repentance, but when to
the three they added a fourth, then it was too late. The time of
repentance was past, and the punishment threatened must fall.

And now perhaps you can understand a saying of S. John in his first
Epistle. He says:--"If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not
unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin
not unto death. There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall
pray for it." S. John is not speaking here of what we call mortal
sins, but of mortal sins continued till the measure is filled up, and
when the last sin has been added which completes the measure, that is
the sin unto death, which it avails nothing to pray for, for that sin
ends in death. Before, there was life, spiritual life, perhaps
flickering, but extant, then comes the last sin, and the life is gone
out, all is dark, and dead, and cold, no more fanning of the black
ashes is of any avail, the fire is out and cannot be revived.

III. How does God deal with those who have gone beyond this measure?
In one of two ways. Either:--

1. There comes a sudden call,--a sudden death-sickness or accident
cuts them off. Or:--

2. Dead impenitence settles over the soul, which no longer wishes for
anything better, which feels no desire for pardon.

Of the first case, we have instances in Scripture. King Belshazzar had
committed many transgressions, he was weighed in the balances, but
still found wanting in the final and irreversible act of wickedness,
till that night when he brought out the sacred vessels used in the
temple to drink out of them at his riotous banquet in his palace. That
act of sacrilege was the one sin which weighed down the balance. What
says the sacred text? "In that night was Belshazzar the King of the
Chaldeans slain." I may instance also Judas, who having for long been
a thief, added to his former sins the one last and terrible sin of
selling his Master, and then a fit of madness came over him in which he
hung himself.

But sometimes h