such a tendency to tame and soften the rudest nature? Shall means of
grace be afforded more powerfully calculated to enlighten the mind,
convince the understanding, influence the will, or draw the affections
of the heart towards God? Shall Sabbaths of more peaceful rest dawn
upon the troubled heart, or sacraments of more healing virtue be
administered? Can retreats be secured where God's Word may be read
and prayer enjoyed with more undisturbed repose? Will the gospel be
preached more faithfully, and a people be found more loving and pious
to assemble for public or private worship? Can a Saviour be offered
more able or willing to save, and the Spirit of God be poured down
upon the burning soil in more plenteous or life-giving pentecostal
showers? Is this how men picture to themselves the place in which they
expect to atone for past sins by limited suffering? Impossible!
They are thinking of a world better and more glorious than the
present;--not of a hell, but of a heaven!

Even if such a place were prepared for the impenitent and wicked, what
conceivable security is there that a new mind and spirit would be
the necessary result of those new and enlarged benefactions? We
must assume that the power of sinning remains, otherwise man's
responsibility would cease, and punishment thereby become mere
cruelty. If sin is thus possible, then why may not the sinner indulge
there in the same selfishness, disobedience, and rebellion which
characterised him here? Why may it not be with him as with many a man
who loves sin in the low haunts of profligacy and crime, but loves it
not the less when brought into circumstances of greater comfort and
among society of greater godliness? But should it be otherwise,
and the supposed place of future punishment have none of those
advantages,--and we are forced by the necessity of the case to assume
their absence, at least for a limited period, and to admit, in some