day that he admitted that all that was lost in Adam was Then if Adam died an eternal by the first Adam was regained so all mankind are to be raised regained in Christ. death, all that we lost in the second Adam; in Christ to eternal life. Universalism is therefore true on his own admission. I believe I am through with his speeches. Bro. Moderators, what time have I? MODERATORS.-About ten minutes. MR. HUGHES.-Very well; then I will preach another sermon for the benefit of my brother Carpen ter. MR. CARPENTER.-I hope it will be a good one. MR. HUGHES.-I think you will say that it is a good one when I am through. I will now resume my negative argument where I left off in my former speech. VI. Endless punishment is contrary to the purposes of divine punishment. God's government is founded on the eternal principles of infinite benevolence and justice. "Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before thy face." Ps. 89: 14. It is administered on the principle of good will to man, and for his good and highest happiness. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." Ps. 19:7. The penalties of the divine government are not an arbitrary, revengeful ccde, inflicted for the injury of man; but for his good, to enforce obedience to the divine law, and to discipline and educate him to fulfill its requirements. "Unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for thou renderest to every man according to his work." Ps. 62: 12. "I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me." Ps. 119: 75. "It is good for me that I have been af flicted; that I might learn thy statutes." Verse 11. "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word." Verse 67. These passages set forth very clearly the object and the intention of the penalties of God's government. Even the severest of God's punishments represented by the most terrible of all imagery-by fire-is for the sinner's reformation. will quote a few passages in illustration: I "But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." Mal. 3:2, 3. "And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin; and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning; afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness." Isa. 1: 25-27. "When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning." Isa. 4: 4. Again, punishment unto death, the destruction of the flesh, delivering over to Satan, are intended for the good of the offenders: "The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works. Therefore. their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble. When he slew them, then they sought him; and they returned and enquired early after God." Ps. 78: 31-34. "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." 1 Cor. 5 : 4, 5. "Holding faith, and a good conscience, which some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck; of whom is Hymenius and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." 1 Tim. 1: 19, 20. "Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." 2 Cor. 2: 6, 7. Even man's own wickedness is made to correct him, and because of God's judgments men learn righteous ness: "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts." Jer. 2:19. "With my soul I have desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early; for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” Isa. 26: 9. "I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; in their affliction they will seek me early." Hosea 5:15. "Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth; for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise and save us." Jer. 27. God's punishments are the chastisements of a father who corrects his children in love: "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holinesss Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Heb. 12: 5-11. "He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?" Ps. 94: 10. "Lord, in trouble have they visited thee; they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them." Isa. 26: 16. The idea is very clearly held out here, that, not only is punishment for man's profit, and that he might be partaker of God's holiness, but that the end had in view will finally be attained. "Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are Punishment being reformatory, Endless chastisement is an ab VII. Were the doctrine of endless misery true, it would render perfect bliss, an unalloyed happiness, an impossibility even in heaven, without a complete destruction of all the finer feelings, affections, and sympathies of the human heart. The temporal loss of friends with the hope of meeting them hereafter, makes us unhappy. Would it be possible for us to be otherwise than miserable in the thought that when death takes them it will be an eternal separation? Make this fear a terrible reality hereafter, if we are permitted the heavenly country, will heaven be heaven to us then? "The warp and woof of all destinies are woven fast, Break but one of a thousand keys, And the paining jar through all will run." Can it be that all these social sympaties are lost in heaven? That all that makes us true and kind, good and Christ-like in this world, will be dead and cold in heaven? Is it possible that the love of family, of wife, and child, of our kindred, is all to be annihilated, that the fires of hell may be kept burning, and the saints glorify God in a selfish, unsympathizing heaven? We call the man who can look upon suffering in this world unmoved, a cold, callous fiend. Is that the character of saints in heaven, who exultingly shout, and care nothing for the unutterable agony of kindred in hell? Who would accept heaven on such terms? He who is willing to accept heaven alone, is not worthy of heaven. Nothing so ennobles a man as willingness to sacrifice for the good of others, in the spirit of the great Master, who was rich but became poor for our sakes. Radbod, one of the old Scandinavian kings, after long resistance, finally consented to be baptized. After he had put one foot into the water, he asked the priest if he should meet his forefathers in heaven. Learning that they, being unbaptized pagans, were victims of endless misery, he drew his foot back, and refused the rite, choosing to be with his brave ancestors in hell rather than to be in heaven with the Christian priests." It seems to me that every good Christian man, who has attained the highest refinement of feeling and virtue, who has bnt a spark of the compassion of our dear Saviour, sanctifying his nature, could but say, "Heaven can be no heaven to me if I am to look down upon the eternal anguish of those I have loved here." [Time expired.] MR. CARPENTER'S CLOSING SPEECH. BRETHREN MODERATORS:-I think you and the audience will bear me witness that I have done the arguing here principally, while my brother has been making some fun for us, and has been preaching us one of his old sermons! I have only one particular objection to the sermon, and that is, we have heard the same thing so often before. It is getting a little |