I. The text speaks of the devil and his angels.

Into the scriptural notices of their history I am not going to enter. Nothing is more plainly declared than the fact, that there has been rebellion in heaven. One angel seems to have been its leader and head. Others followed him in his sin, shared his defeat, and undergo the just reward. Already are they both condemned and punished. For reasons unknown to us, they are permitted to wander about, and to tempt man to sin. They are his principal adversaries. He is called to resist them. He, unhappily, too often regards them as his friends, leagues with them, and becomes, to a far greater extent than he supposes, subjected to their influence.

II. The text speaks of the doom of these fallen spirits.

I might here, generally, remark, that their proper character and condition are thus distinctly presented to our view. The ancients, among the Orientals especially, what from broken fragments of tradition, and what from the misguiding of false philosophy, held the doctrine of the existence of two independent principles, the good, and the evil. Scripture opens the truth. Free agents fell from high happiness into aful transgression. Their just Judge condemned and punished them. We can form no exact—no notion of the locality of the angels. As creatures, they must be limited. Fallen angels are unfit for heaven; and rebellious angels could not enjoy the felicities possessed by the loyal. Divine justice, therefore, prepared-yes, prepared-a place of punishment. So it is described in this solemnly pronounced judicial sentence. It was a place prepared for them, and, therefore, fitted for them.

Taking this as an inspired record, and we profess to do this, here is a place of punishment, of indescribable wretchedness; and as such prepared by God himself. We make too free in our speculations with the divine character; trying to regard it as one of which a weak human fondness should be the type. It is a character of high, of even awful, as well as attractive, moral excellence. Purity is there, and justice, as well as love. When sin sprang up in heaven, it was at once condemned and cast out. Christ

himself teaches this. Somewhere in the divine dominion there is a hell prepared for the devil and his angels. There are displays of the sterner, as well as the more amiable, moral perfections: and Christ declares it. O remember this, if ever tempted to view divine love, as moral carelessness. Angels, who had moved high in the holiness and happiness of heaven, rebelled, and were cast down as lightning. Nor was the punishment one of mere loss. God Almighty prepared for them an abode.

That abode is the "everlasting fire." I dispute not about the fire. To man fire is that which penetrates the whole system, and inflicts the keenest agony. I content myself with the analogy thus presented. Whatever be the instrument, it bears the same relation to the nature of the devil and his angels, that fire does to ours. It is not necessarily destructive. It is only so when it unavoidably breaks cohesion. There are material substances which may be pervaded by fire, without being destroyed. The grand point in the analogy is, the infliction of terrible punishment. Not only is all good lost, but all evil is suffered.

And then, it is the everlasting fire. It began, but it shall not end. It is awful even to think of the liberties men have allowed themselves to take with the truth of God. Their systems must govern the legislation of Heaven. But fact. Here are the words of our Lord. They are direct and explicit. The doctrine is stated, not left to be argued and inferred. Three times is the word used here; and twice in the concluding verse. In the last verse, our Lord evidently intends to show that rewards and punishments are for an equal period. The wicked shall go away into punishment everlasting: the righteous into life everlasting. Into the validity of a human argument, or inference, we are permitted to inquire; but a divine sentence, delivered by the Judge himself, is final. This is the case here. In direct terms, the fire of punishment, and the life of enjoyment, are spoken of as everlasting: the same word, on the most solemn occasion, is applied to each.

III. I now take the text as the sentence pronounced on the wicked.

God made man for eternal life. The inheritance, though forfeited by sin, has been regained by Christ, and its bestowment became a part of his glorious redemption. Personal redemption begins in forgiveness of sins; it goes on through redemption from all iniquity. Here it is consummated by the delightful declaration, "Come, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom."

But, painful as is the subject, we must dwell on it. The King shall then say to them on his left hand,—to them who said, God will not require it; to them who had said, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways;-" Depart from me."

1. We remind you of their character. Punishment implies a law given, and a law violated. The law of God expresses his will, and manifests his nature. Its sanction as truly expresses the mind of God in reference to sin, as the command expresses the will of God as to the conduct of moral agents. The law being violated, the penalty is incurred.

But, in addition, there is the law of mercy. Human guilt has been expiated by a divine atonement. A glorious salvation is offered to man. But his real condition as a creature is recognised. He is penitently to forsake sin. He is to receive the mercy of God in Christ with thankful faith. Christ is to be his acknowledged Saviour and Lord. This law, too, they on the left hand have broken. Salvation from sin they neglected, and would not believe on the Son of God. And in this wrong-doing they persevered to the end; till death fixed on them the character of wrong-doers indelibly.

2. We point out their doom.

Depart. The presence of God comprehends all good. All good in himself; and in the heavenly society which dwells by his throne. From all this the wicked are cut off. And O, how terrible the loss!

Ye cursed. Doomed to wretchedness by the God that made them, and the Saviour that bought them. The word most impressively marks the perfect opposition to the divine nature. What must that be which he pronounces accursed, who hateth nothing that he has made? He, who shed his blood on the cross for sinners?

And the curse is blighting. Hope itself is now withered; and pleasure shall grow no more.

Into everlasting fire. The fact may be mysterious, but fact it is; and implies intolerable, inconceivable torment. The whole man wrapped, pervaded, penetrated, by the subtle element, and abiding thus for ever.

Prepared for the devil and his angels. Such society is worse than entire solitude, as implying the existence and outrages of every evil passion; passion unmixed, unrestrained; passion ripened, perfected, and acting with the whole energy of our immortal nature: malignity exasperated by self-abhorrence, and indomitable pride: rage, that preys on itself, and yet seeks to vent its fury on every surrounding object. They who are cast into this terrible abode are, indeed, most emphatically, according to the solemn but too little heeded warning of our Lord, "delivered unto the tormentors."

3. The awful justice of the sentence will appear on the consideration of two of its expressions.

Depart. To their heavenly Father's invitations, to their Saviour's offered mercy, to all the convictions and strivings of the Holy Spirit, they had said, in effect,-Depart. They refused life, they chose death. To God they would not come. Sacred communion with him, as the path to heaven, as the preparation for it, they rejected. They were warned of the consequences, but they persisted. They lived and died

without God; and thus must they live for ever.

The devil and his angels. To his temptations they yielded. They believed his suggestions rather than the voice of God. They acted on his plans, they promoted his work, they became the instruments of his purposes. The alliance was of their own making; the sentence of God makes it eternal; and sin becomes its own punishment.

Such shall be the language of the King to them on his left hand. But is it necessary that we should stand there?

Is it necessary for our present good? O no. The path that conducts to such an end may present occasional appearances of good, but no more. On that path there is no true peace, no true wisdom, no true joy, no true improvement, and advance.

It is not made necessary by God. He sets before you, most sincerely, most seriously, before each of you, life and death, blessing and cursing. He swears by himself, he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He stretches out his hands all the day long, beseeching you to leave the broad way, and to strive to enter in at the strait gate. If you stand at the left hand, it is not only your own voluntary choice, but your own avoidable fault.

Forgetfulness of God will certainly place you there. Have you hitherto neglected the mercy of God, and slighted his will? Be thankful that he spares you. His goodness is designed to lead you to repentance. Think; if you were to die now in your sin and guilt. We warn you to flee from the wrath to come. The King is now on the throne of grace. Pardons are in his hands. By your dread of the curse of hell; by your desire of the blessing, your hope of heaven; come to him without delay. Seek, that grace may conduct you to glory.

CHRISTIAN ANTICIPATION.

"Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God." 2 PETER iii. 12.

THE study of man, whether in ourselves or others, will show us a perpetual looking forward. There is no real satisfaction in the present. The only case in which this seems to be so is that presented by the Christian; and that only seems to be SO. He enjoys the present, but he anticipates the future. As to others, the objects to which they look are all comprised within the limits of the present state. Their number and variety are large; the horizon inclosing them is vast: but they belong to earth; and on some or other of them the natural heart is fixed. This is "the carnal mind:" they who are under its influence "mind earthly things."

In noticing the character and circumstances of the true Christian, there are two facts which fix our attention. First: In him faith has taken the rule and direction of this ten