men--the lesson that those who refuse to believe and obey
under the means of grace which God has appointed in the Church, would
not be more pliable if prodigies were shown to them by way of overcoming
their unbelief. The conception, although conveyed by the lips of the
rich man after he had gone to his own place, that a miracle of power
would, if it were exhibited, bring alienated hearts submissively back to
God, springs native here in time. It is the deceit with which many sing
themselves to sleep--they would believe if one rose from the dead. There
are two answers to it:--one is, it would not be effectual although it
were granted; and the other is, even though it were fitted to accomplish
the object, it will not be given.

The conclusion of the whole matter is, delays are dangerous; "Now is the
accepted time, now is the day of salvation."

Some lessons still remain, that invite our attention, and will repay it.

1. For mankind, after this life is done, another world remains,
consisting of two opposite spheres or conditions, one of holiness and
happiness, the other of sin and misery. The Jewish people and their
rulers persistently demanded of Jesus that he would show them a sign
from heaven; and this demand he as steadily refused to gratify. Unlike
all false prophets, the Lord Jesus maintained silence in regard to the
particular characteristics of the unseen world; but one thing in
compassionate love he made known with abundant clearness, that there is
an absolute and permanent separation between good and evil in the world
to come, and that there are distinct places of rewards and punishments.

Some people labour hard to shake from their own minds the belief in a
place and state of retribution. To these I would affectionately suggest
that to disbelieve it will not destroy it. Even in Scotland--the narrow
end of an island nowhere very broad--I have met with persons well
advanced in life, of good common education, and good common sense, who
had never seen the sea. Suppose that these persons should have cause
greatly to dread the sea, and should therefore ardently desire that
there were no such thing in existence. Suppose further, that, in the
common way of the world, the wish should become father to the thought,
and that they at last should firmly believe that there is not a sea.
Would their sentiment change the state of the fact? Sinners, to whom the
name and nature of a place of punishment are disagreeable, have no m