to the chief of where I was going. He also gave me a letter to his brother, a clergyman in the same town-he has since been made a bishop-and when I arrived I met with every kindness, the chief even advising me as to the best part of the town to get a house. As before, I was referred to one particular detective, who was requested to keep my secret, and, as before, I had not to go to the station, but used to meet him by appointment, and not a soul but he and I ever knew our business."

He had now a good home, his wife and children had come down from London; and he continued to advance, for he had regained his character. The possession of a "good character" was felt to be such a novelty, that B 524 was naturally proud of the position he held, and felt disposed to rise even higher in the social scale. One of the largest printing firms in London advertised for an overseer, he made an application, was installed into the office, and though he fulfilled the duties for two years, we believe that his employers never suspected that their trusted servant was an ex-convict. He left the country town with the best wishes of the chief constable, and in London was congratulated on the past, and encouraged for the future, by the chief inspector at Scotland Yard.

While thus prospering in the metropolis, he still retained his love of reading; but at this stage he had not parted with those infidel notions which would seem to have been the secret cause of his turning aside from the path of rectitude. It was at this time, however, that symptoms of consumption, which had threatened his life in prison, reappeared, and instead of attending to his daily work, he was obliged to lie in bed. On hearing of this affliction, the chief metropolitan police inspector at once sent a messenger with money for his immediate wants, and also communicated with Mr. Hatton and his secretary, Mr. Wheatley, who took care that the sufferer wanted for nothing so long as he lived.

His new friends did something more than supply temporal needs, however they communicated the gospel to the sinking man, and though he had hitherto been so content with infidel notions that he had actually hated anything pertaining to the religion of Christ, the grace of God touched the hard heart, and he received the truth in the spirit of a little child. Mr. Wheatley became the instrument of effecting this change, one of Mr. Moody's books, "The Way to God," having also been of service. "These cold, wet days make me feel bad," the sufferer wrote to the secretary on the 10th of October. "Mr. Hatton and his sister came to see me; the lady brought me such a lovely bouquet, and some grapes, and we had quite a nice talk, and she prayed with me. Mr. Hatton was also very kind, and gave my wife five shillings. I did not know there were such people in the world, nor did I ever have the gospel of Christ placed before me in the same light that you and our dear friend have placed it in; and I am satisfied that there are many in the same sad plight."

The peace which now took possession of his heart and soul was astonishing even to those who, in the course of their work among the fallen class, had met with similar experiences. "I am satisfied with those theses and antitheses," he said: "All have sinned and come short,' &c.; 'If any man sin we have,' &c. The soul that sinneth it

shall die; He that believeth on me, though he were dead yet shall he live."" He declared that he could not express in words what he meant, but added, "Whereas I was blind, now I see.' Aye, and such a sight; but I think my sight is weak; as yet I can only look a little, and then, as it were, shut my eyes and think!"

The conversations which took place at the dying man's bedside continually testified to the wonderful change which had been effected. He was as weak as a man could possibly be and live; he had pain; coughing would interrupt his utterance; he could not read more than a little at a time, but yet all was well. "I've fought against God all my life, and he has saved me like this," he once remarked. "What a deliverance ! " It was a case of a blind man's arguing against the shining of the sun. "I tell you what," he added, "argument is no good; an unbelieving man don't know what you're talking about. He thinks of things just as he sees them, and don't understand what it's all about. I never did. I didn't understand these things; but when God touched me I had to yield, whether or no. I could not help myself. Then when I yielded he put life in me, and I began to understand." What grand anomalies are encountered in the kingdom of grace! Here was a man with one foot already in the grave who confessed that he had only just begun to live; he had prided himself in days of vigour on possessing a strong and discerning mind, but now that his physical strength was undermined by disease, he found himself beginning to understand.

"I've

His knowledge of general everyday life also led him to say that there were thousands who read the papers, and who knew plenty about the world, who were, notwithstanding, ignorant of the fact of God's great love. They knew that there was something called religion, but they did not know it was for them, nor that Christ died for sinners. been like a great cake of wax," he added; "not all the knowledge and argument in the world could make it run through a hole; but light a candle, and how soon it runs. Logic could not break me, but the love of God melted me right away." Such had been his life, thus he became changed, and so he passed away.

Some of the above facts we learned from Mr. Wheatley himself at the branch station of the St. Giles's Mission, 10, Brook Street, Holborn, an old-fashioned London house; and, according to one tradition, the same in which the despairing genius, Thomas Chatterton, committed suicide on August the 24th, 1770. We learned that this house, like so many others of its class, is coming down, and thus another old landmark, which for several years has been associated with a very profitable branch of philanthropic work, will pass away. At present a surprising business in thief-reclamation is here carried on, for a very large proportion of the prisoners discharged from the prisons of the country come under the notice of those who conduct the mission. There are two thousand four hundred men discharged from penal servitude every year; one thousand two hundred of these find their way to London, two-thirds of whom apply to Mr. Hatton for assistance.

The ever present difficulty in the case of these men is, how and where shall employment be found for them? This perplexity is especially pressing in times like the present, when trade is dull, and the labour market over-stocked. Mr. Wheatley has a notion that it would

answer the purpose to establish a working station at King's Cross. All required would be a yard with suitable buildings, the object being to purchase the materials of old houses, clean the bricks, and convert the rough wood into fuel. Barrows would also be lent to those who needed them for trading purposes in the streets; and coals laid in direct from the pits would be dealt out at a cheap rate. It is calculated that this would give permanent employment to about a hundred men, which would prove a wonderful relief to our friends who are superintending the work. Ever since it was commenced, about seven years ago, this business of criminal reclamation has gone on extending, until at present it can hardly be set down as second to any other work of the same kind in the country. B 524 is a case with some exceptional features of interest; but he is still a sample of a large number of others who have been lifted up, and who have been made partakers of similar spiritual blessings. G. H. P.

A Letter upon the Doctrine of Everlasting

MR.

Junishment.

R. EDITOR,-I think I have read during the last forty or fifty years nearly all that has been written on the subject of "everlasting punishment," insomuch that I am almost sick of the subject, and am inclined to turn away in disgust from the fierce-I had almost said ferocious-onslaughts which have been made of late on this subject by impulsive and flippant writers, some of whom evidently know not what they say nor whereof they affirm.

Now, before I leave the world-and at my advanced age the time of my departure cannot be far distant-I would enter my protest against all the calumnious attacks which have been made, both from the pulpit and the press, against this revealed truth.

It may, perhaps, be said that I beg the question when I call it a revealed truth; but a revealed truth it undoubtedly is, unless the Greek phrase “ κόλασιν αιώνιον ” has been wrongly translated in the Authorised Version of the New Testament, and also in the Revised Version. If the translators have made a mistake in their translation, then by all means let us have a re-revised translation by more competent scholars, that so we may know what our Lord really did say touching the destiny of the wicked.

Now, I am not aware that any of the fraternity of scribes who have scribbled, and frantically declared their detestation of this revealed truth, have been able or have even attempted to disprove the correctness of the translation of Kóλasiv alúviov, "eternal punishment," as given in the Revised Version; and yet with this tacit admission of, the correctness of the translation, they have had the audacity, the wickedness, I may say, to deny and to denounce the truth so explicitly taught by our Lord. In Matt. xxv. 46, he distinctly says, These "-the wicked-" shall go away into eternal punishment." "No,

no," say the modern scribes, "it's a lie, it's a lie; there will be no such thing as eternal punishment meted out to the wicked; God is too merciful a Being to do that." And thus-unwittingly, it may be-denying the eternity of punishment, they make Christ a liar. To me it is a marvel that surpasses my comprehension that men professing faith in Christ and love to Christ should spurn with bitter scorn the very words that came forth out of his lips.

The silly, childish notion that God is too merciful to punish is contradicted by every page of history. Too merciful to punish! What, and was there no such thing as a deluge in the time of Noah ? Were there no such things as the

plagues of Egypt, and the destruction of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea in the time of Moses? No such thing as the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah in the time of Abraham and Lot? Did not three and twenty thousand perish in the wilderness in one day? Was not Nebuchadnezzar hurled from his throne, and driven among the beasts of the field? Did not Herod perish, and that suddenly and awfully under the fierce anger of God? And did not God punish with instantaneous death the two liars, Ananias and his wife? God, instead of being too merciful to punish, is, in fact, too merciful not to punish. A greater calamity there could not be in this our world, nor in any other world of rational and intelligent beings, than to let sin go unpunished. Away, then, with the foolish, childish idea that God is too merciful to punish, when all history, Biblical and profane, testifies to the fact that God has again and again" Come out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity."

The objection felt by some to punishment as inflicted by God on the workers of iniquity rests on a false assumption. It is assumed that, because it is written "God is love," that therefore he is nothing more-that love is the only moral element in the divine nature, whereas there are a number of texts in the sacred volume which tell us "God is just," "God is righteous," "God is faithful, and will by no means clear the guilty." Love, however strong and unquenchable in the heart of man or God, does not destroy the great principles of justice and equity in those who are the rulers of this world, nor can it in the great Ruler of the universe. It is true that our sovereign Queen Victoria is love: she has a loving heart, which manifests itself in various ways. It is equally true that she is righteous and just in the administration of national affairs, insomuch that she will not suffer law-breakers to go unpunished, but demands that for every crime they commit they be punished by imprisonment, penal servitude, or the forfeiture of life on the gallows. Let the judicial character of God be but recognised as it ought to be, and it will be seen at once that the fact that" God is love," is in perfect keeping with his judicial displeasure, and his revealed determination to "render to every man according to his deeds."

Some writers with more zeal than wisdom have undertaken to interpret "eternal punishment" as preached by our Lord to mean "eternal agony in a material fire kindled by the wrath of God"-an interpretation so repugnant to common sense as to need no serious refutation. Common sense tells us that material fire cannot act upon a pure disembodied spirit, nor upon a spiritual body with which the dead will be raised. The metaphors employed to set forth the punishment of the wicked, are metaphors which, whatever they may mean, fitly represent the stinging accusations of a guilty conscience, painful to be borne, and in some cases too painful to be endured. Anithophel and Judas both committed suicide; they could no longer endure the terrible accusations of their guilty consciences, and in their agony they preferred a violent death to a prolonged life. Thus, in this life there are cases in which the worm that dies not bites, and the fire that is not quenched burns in the souls of men who have been guilty of gross dereliction of duty or of flagrant iniquity; and if in this life we see the worm and the fire of a guilty conscience tormenting the soul, it is but reasonable to suppose that in the life to come there will be the same suffering, unless in this, the accepted time and the day of salvation," there be the application to the conscience of the gospel remedy, "the precious blood of Christ," which purifies the conscience, and cleanses from all sin.

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But, say some, whatever may be the punishment of the wicked, we cannot and will not believe it will be eternal, and that because we judge it to be altogether disproportionate to the sins committed during the short span of man's earthly existence. You judge it to be disproportionate!! And pray who made thee, O man, a judge of the demerit of sin? God, and God only, knows the just penalty due to sin, and we may rest assured that as "righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne," "he will judge the world in equity," and render to every man according to his deeds, i.e., according to the number and wickedness of the deeds done in the body.

It must not be supposed that the eternity of punishment involves the same amount and degree of punishment in all cases. There is a sore punishment, and there is a sorer punishment; there is a damnation, and there is a greater damnation; there are the few stripes, and there are the many stripes to be inflicted on transgressors. Our Lord distinctly taught that punishment will be more tolerable in some cases than in others. Convicts may be sent to the same prison, and for the same length of time; but it does not follow that therefore their punishment is the same. In all our convict establishments a heavier punishment is meted out to some than to others, according to their several degrees of criminality and guilt. Superficial thinkers and writers on this subject, with no power of discrimination, have jumped to the conclusion that "eternal punishment must be equal punishment to all alike, whereas the difference in degree may be as great as that of one man receiving one stripe and another forty stripes save one.

But, we are asked, "Is not 'eternal punishment' a very awful doctrine ? " Yes, we say, it is indeed truly awful, inexpressibly awful. "Why then," say they, "believe it and preach it?" Our answer is, simply and solely because Jesus Christ believed it, and preached it. Had he not believed it, and preached it, we would never have made it an article of our faith, nor a tenet of our ministry; but as disciples of the Lord Jesus, sitting at his feet to learn of him, we are bound to believe all that he taught, however awful the truths may be. However opposed to our poor finite views, we believe all that he said touching the doom and destiny of the wicked.

As we know not in what the eternity of punishment will consist, nor what are the great ends and purposes to be accomplished thereby in God's great empire of worlds upon worlds, it is not for man to doubt it, and to denounce it as a "damnable heresy," when Christ so plainly taught it, and caused it to be left on record in the pages of inspiration. We ought humbly and meekly to receive it as a truth which came from the lips of the Great Teacher, the great Infallible, who is his own interpreter in the case of all dark sayings and all dark providences, and who will in due time make plain all that is now mysterious and perplexing.

Ramsgate.

D. PLEDGE.

Prager in Affliction.

"LORD, in trouble have they visited thee; they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them" (Isaiah xxvi. 16). "They poured out their still prayer." The Hebrew word Lachus signifieth properly a soft or low kind of muttering which can hardly be heard. The prophet hereby would intimate to us that in their great troubles and deep distresses they sighed or groaned unto God, and prayed in a still and silent manner. Saints never visit God more with their prayers than when he visits them most with his rod. Saints never pray at other times with that seriousness, that spiritualness, that heavenliness, that humbleness, that brokenness, that fervency, that frequency, which they manifest when they are under the mighty hand of God. Oh, what a spirit of prayer was upon Jonah when he was in the whale's belly; and upon Daniel when he was among the lions; and upon David in his wilderness-state; and upon the thief when he was on the cross; and upon Jehoshaphat, when Moab and Ammon and others came against him to battle; and upon Hezekiah, when Sennacherib had invaded Judah; and upon Jacob, when his brother Esau came to meet him with four hundred cut-throats at his heels!-Thomas Brooks.