wrath of God being poured upon them to the utmost, it will be
inflicted in the least _possible_ measure, and only in the way of
natural consequence? What if the sin which makes the hell hereafter,
is, in spite of all its suffering, loved, clung to, even as the sin is
which makes the hell now? Nay, what if every gift of God, and every
capacity for perverting His gifts, are retained; and if the sinner
shall suffer only from that which he himself _chooses_ for ever, and
for ever determines to possess? I do not say that it must be so;
but if it is so, then might a hell of unbridled self-indulgence be
preferred then, as it is by many now, to a heaven whose blessedness
consisted in perfect holiness, and the possession of the love of God
in Christ, for ever and ever. Let, then, the fairest star be selected,
like a beauteous island in the vast and shoreless sea of the azure
heavens, as the future home of the criminals from the earth; and let
them possess in this material paradise whatever they most love, and
all that it is _possible_ for God to bestow; let them be endowed with
undying bodies, and with minds which shall for ever retain their
intellectual powers; let them no more be "plagued with religion;" let
no Saviour ever intrude His claims upon them, no Holy Spirit disturb
them, no God reveal Himself supernaturally to them; let no Sabbath
ever dawn upon them, no saint ever live among them, no prayer ever be
heard within their borders; but let human beings exist there for
ever, smitten only by the leprosy of hatred to God, and with utter
selfishness as its all-prevailing and eternal purpose; then, as sure
as the law of righteousness exists, on which rests the throne of God
and the government of the universe, a society so constituted must work
out for itself a hell of solitary and bitter suffering, to which no
limit can be assigned except the capacity of a finite nature. Alas!
the spirit that is without love to its God or to its neighbour is
already possessed by a power which must at last create for its own