e man that set at
nought Moses' law died without compassion, on the word of two or three
witnesses--of how much sorer punishment shall he be judged worthy who
hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of
the covenant a common thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of
grace!

Even if we grant, as of course we must, that many of the expressions
referring to the ultimate fate of the ungodly are symbolical, yet it
must be granted also, that they have counterparts in the realm of soul
and spirit, which are as terrible to endure, as the nature of the soul
is more highly organized than that of the body. Fire to the body is
easy to bear in comparison with certain forms of suffering to which the
heart and soul are sometimes exposed even in this life. Have we not
sometimes said, "If physical suffering were concerned, we could bear
it; but oh, this pain which is gnawing at the heart--this awful inward
agony, which burns like fire!" And if we are capable of suffering so
acutely from remorse and shame, from ingratitude and misrepresentation,
in this life where there are so many distractions and temporary
alleviations, what may not be the possibility of pain in that other
life, where there is no screen, no covering, no alleviation, no cup of
water to slake the thirst! Believe me, when Jesus said, "These shall
go away into eternal punishment," He contemplated a retribution so
terrible, that it were good for the sufferers if they had never been
born.

All the great preachers have seen and faithfully borne witness to the
fearful results of sin, as they take effect in this life and the next.
These threw Brainerd into a dripping sweat, whilst praying on a cool
day for his Indians in the woods; these drew John Welsh from his bed,
at all hours of the night, to plead for his people; these inspired
Baxter to write his _Call to the Unconverted_; these drew Henry Martyn
from his fellowship at Cambridge to the burning plains of India; these
forced tears from Whitefield as he preached to the crowding thousands;
these burn in the memorable sermon by Jonathan Edwards on "Sinners in
the hands of an angry God." The notable revival which broke out at
Kirk o' Shotts was due, under God, to Livingston congratulating the
people that drops of rain alone were falling, and not the fire of
Divine wrath. The sermons of Ralph Erskine, of McCheyne and W. C.
Burns, of Brownlow Northland Reginald Radcliffe, in the last
generat