ew so vile and degraded as not to have still some good in them. And
between these two extremes there are multitudes of mixed characters, in
part good and in part bad. Among these, of whom we know that they are
full of worth yet full of imperfections too, we count so many who are
most dear to us, many the companions of our lives, our kindred, and
acquaintances, and cherished friends, whose failings and whose virtues we
know so well, of mixed and imperfect character, too frail for heaven, too
good, too lovable for hell, partly good and partly not good, strong and
also weak, marred with inconsistencies, and often for these very
inconsistencies the more dear to us, of whom, so truly have we loved and
even honoured them, it seems almost like an outrage upon their memory to
bring ourselves to think that there was just so much of evil in them and
just so little good, as would suffice to turn the balance against them
and thus fix, at the moment of their death, their final doom.

What are we to think of such as these? Of some we perhaps say within
ourselves, "Would that there had been but a little amendment of this
blemish! A little more of strength and purpose against that fault! If
only this besetting hardness had not been the spoiler of his life, that
great heedlessness, that fatal procrastination, this too frequent sin!
Oh! but for this or that which marred the fair and well rounded
character! But for this we should have been full of hope: there was so
much on the better side, that we should have been full of trust, and even
of confidence. But, now, what are we to think? If only there were some
fit and fair proportion to be thought of, duly measured out, of reward
and punishment, a mixed destiny for a mixed character, partly good and
partly evil for those who in this life were in part good and in part were
evil! But these two awful and sharp alternatives, either reward or
punishment, these two separate issues, heaven or hell, and if not heaven
then necessarily and inevitably hell! What shall we think? We dare not
think. In the Bible we are encouraged to believe that we shall receive
the due reward of our deeds, whether they be good or whether they be
evil. {8} But how shall any receive in heaven the due reward of evil
deeds done on earth? and how, in hell, shall any wretched soul receive in
any truth the due rewards of good deeds done on earth? Yet in each,
there was some good even in the worst, and some evil eve