completely forgiven. " Though, our sins have been as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." (Isaiah i. 18.)
Let us cleave firmly to this doctrine, if we have re- ceived it already. We may sometimes feel faint, and unworthy, and cast down. But if we have really come to Jesus by faith, our sins are clean forgiven. They are cast behind God's back — blotted out of the book of His remembrance — sunk into the depths of the sea. Let us believe and not be afraid.
We ought to notice, in the last place, that it is possible for a mail's soul to be lost for ever in hell. The words of our Lord are distinct and express. He speaks of one who " hath never forgiveness, bat is in danger of eternal damnation."
This is an awful truth, beyond doubt. But it is a truth, and we must not shut our eyes against it. We find it asserted over and over again in Scripture. Figures of all kinds are multiplied, and language ef every sort is employed, in order to make it plain and unmistakeable. In short, if there is no such thing as " eternal damna- tion." we may throw the Bible aside, and say that words have no meaning at all.
We have great need to keep this awful truth steadily in view in these latter days. Teachers have risen up, who are openly attacking the doctrine of the eternity of punishment, or laboring hard to explain it away. Men's ears are being tickled with plausible sayings about " the love of God," and the impossibility of a loving God per- mitting an everlasting hell. The eternity of punishment is spoken of as a mere " speculative question," about which men may believe anything they please. — In the midst of ajl this ilood of false doctrine, let us hold firmly