the world in which men and the souls of men live, and move, and have
their being.

Next, to speak of Scripture. I might quote texts innumerable to
prove that what I say Scripture says also. Consider but this one
thing,--that there is a whole book in the Bible written to prove
this one thing,--that our good and bad deeds are repaid us with
interest in this life--the Proverbs of Solomon I mean--in which
there is little or no mention of heaven or hell, or any world to
come. It is all one noble, and awful, and yet cheering sermon on
that one text, "The righteous shall be recompensed in the earth,
much more the wicked and the sinner,"--put in a thousand different
lights; brought home to us a thousand different roads, comes the
same everlasting doom,--"Vain man, who thinkest that thou canst live
in God's world and yet despise His will, know that, in every
smiling, comfortable sin, thou art hatching an adder to sting thee
in the days of old age, to poison thy cup of sinful joy, even when
it is at thy lips; to haunt thy restless thoughts, and dog thee day
and night; to rise up before thee, in the silent, sleepless hours of
night, like an angry ghost! An awful foretaste of the doom that is
to come; and yet a merciful foretaste, if thou wilt be but taught by
the disappointment, the unsatisfied craving, the gnawing shame of a
guilty conscience, to see the heinousness of sin, and would turn
before it be too late."

What, my friends,--what will you make of such texts as this, "That
he who soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption?" Do
you not see that comes true far too often? Can it help ALWAYS
coming true, seeing that God's apostle spoke it? What will you make
of this, too, "That the wicked is snared by the working of his own