final or remedial we do not know. Perhaps it may lead to the extinction
of the soul of evil, perhaps to its purifying and deliverance. On these
questions I fall back on the word of God: "The wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

III. The faith in immortality brings with it the sense of order,
tranquillity, steadiness and courage in the present life. It sets us
free from mean and cowardly temptations, makes it easier to resist the
wild animal passions of lust and greed and cruelty, brings us into
eternal relations and fellowships, makes us partners with the wise and
good of all the ages, ennobles our earthly patriotism by giving us a
heavenly citizenship. Yea, it knits us in bonds of love with the coming
generation. It is better than the fountain of youth. We shall know and
see them as they go on their way, long after we have left the path. The
faith in immortality sets a touch of the imperishable on every generous
impulse and unselfish deed. It inspires to sublime and heroic
virtues,--spiritual splendours,--deeds of sacrifice and suffering for
which earth has no adequate recompense, but whose reward is great in
heaven. Here is the patience of the saints, the glorious courage of
patriots, martyrs, and confessors, something more bright and shining
than secular morality can bring forth,--a flashing of the inward light
which fails not, but grows clearer as death draws near. What noble
evidences of this come to us out of the great war.

"Are you in great distress?" asked a nurse of an American soldier whose
legs had been shot away on the battle-field. "I am in as great peace,"
said he, "through Jesus my Lord, as a man can possibly be, out of
Paradise."

A secretary of the Y.M.C.A., the night before he was killed, wrote to