1. Death ends all. But who can prove this? Why is it less possible that we should live in another condition than that we should have been born into the one in wliich we now are ? Resurrection is not antecedently more incredible than crtation. 2. Ood too merciful. But is he? Does he not do or suffer to be done fearful things now? 3. Retribution comes in this world. In part it does to some, but to others .sin seems one long success. 4, Christ's death atones for all. Yes, but in what sense ? Certainly not in the sense of saving from suflering now. Why, then, if the conditions of salvation be not fulfilled, should the atonement avail hereafter more than now ?
II. Thk frobable hotiteb of this denial. Not irresistible conviction or any satisfactory knowledge of the falsity of what is denied, but such as these: 1. The desire that the doctrine denied should not be true. How often in questions like these the wish Is father to the thought ! Our opinions follow the line of our interest.
2. The belief that the doctrine renders impossible men's love and trust in Ood. Without question there are and have been settings forth of this doctrine which to all thoughtlul minds must have this effect. The conception that God has created — of course, know- ingly — myriads of human souls to sin and suffer for ever is one that must darken the face of God to the thoughtful soul. Why, it will almost passionately be asked — " Why, if it were so much better that they should never have been horn, were they born '! " It ia " he, the Lord, that hath made us, and not we ourselves." But we are not shut up to such conception. God " will have all men to he saved ; " still through what fiery diioiplines may he not have to compel the perverse and unruly wills of sinful men to pass ere they shall come to themselves and say, "I will arise," etc.? 3. Atheistic, agnostic, or materialistic. They who come under such names alike will dislike such doctrine as this. They will not simply disbelieve, but protest against them.
III. Thb success, such as it is, that these denials hate had. 1. They have dulled and sometimes deadened the &ar of the Lord in many souls. But : 2. They have never been able to convince any that there is no judgment to come. The dread
;. 1—18.] THE BOOK OH' THE PHOPHET JBBEMIAH. 151
(if it haunts them still, the evidence for it being too strong and clear. Hamlet's soliloquy, " To be or not to be, that is the question," etc., stll expresses men's fear of death. "For in that sleep of deiitli wlmt dreans may come!" 3. it is difficult to see aught of good tliat has ken do e— not. !■ g but more or less ill. Therefore note —
iV. The warning that comes to us fbom these denials. Cherish a deep and holy fear of God. Judge each one ourselves, that we be not judged of the Lord.— %!.
Vers. 4 — 7. — Too late. These verses tell of the flis;1it of Zedekiah and his miserable capture by the GhaMi an army. Picture the scene. Tlie breach made in the walL The dead hour of night. The rush upon the temiile. The slaiightei there. The alarm spreading to the palace. The attempted escape, bifoie dawn, of the king, his wives, and his children. See them muffled, disguiseii,laiien with such precious things as they could suatch up in the hurry of that awiul moment, stealihily mnl<ing their way along the narrow alley between the walls, sjeeding down the ravine, up over the slopes of Olivet, then down again to the plains of Jericho, where they were overtaken and m ide prisoners. Many an opportunity of escape had been given to Zedekiah during these last months and previously, but he had neglected them all. Fur a while his present attempt seemed successful, but he was soon in the cruel grasp of the Chaldeans, and then worse than all he had feared came upon him. He tried to escape, but too late. This history, unutterably sad as it is, has many parallels and much instiuction. Consider —
I. Instances in which this verdict or "too late" is applicable. There are many. 1. Scriptural. No doubt that not a few, when the Lord had shut Noah in the ark, and they saw the lowering clouds, the overwhelming rain, and the rising waters, repeated and sought safety in the ark. But then, because they had been " sometime disobedient" (cf. 1 Pet. iii. 19), they were now too late. " Kemember Lot's wife." The Israelites after their repulse at Ai ; after their disbelief of the faithful spies (Numb. xiv. 44). Our Lord's words to Jerusalem, " But now they are hid from thine eyes.'' The foolish virgins (Matt. zxv.). Cf. also " When once the master of the house has risen up and shut to the door," etc. 2. Historic. Archias, magistrate of Greece, revelling and feasting. Plot formed to assassinate, A friend sends intelligence. Arrives as feast is going on. " Serious things to-morrow," said the senseless man. That night he was slain. The massacre of Glencoe would never have occurred but for the tardiness of the chief of the clan in giving in his submission to the government. A snowstorm hindered him when at last he did set out tor this purpose, and the last day of grace came and ended, and the chiefs submission, had not been made. The massacre followed (cf. Macaulay). 3. And in less notable events in common everyday life, how perpetually are we seeing like instances! School life wasted, no making it up again. Opportunities in business, in the home, in the Church, missed ; above all, in regard to the life eternal, — and not recoverable. The tide in the affairs of men not taken at the flood ; instead of fortune, the lew ships which men have launched lie wrecked or stranded on the shore. " Too late I '" With what disappointment and despair is this often said, and will it be said hereafter, and with what truth as well 1 Therefore note —
II. The misery of him who is too late. This arises from ; 1. Shame before men. They will not pity, but despise and blame. 2. Sting of conscience. We know it might have been otherwise ; we nlight have secured what we have let go. 3. SigJU of the consequences brought on ourselves and others through our neglect. 4. The irn-- coverability of what is lost. It can never be all the same to any soul, no matiei what theory of the future we may hoi i, if he has thrown away opportunities of grace and squandered the days of salvation witii which he was blessed. This thought, thai he was " too late," was the "torment" of the rich man in the hell into which God sent his soul after death.
III. How COME MEN TO BE TOO LATE ? Sometimes it is : 1. The opportunit]/ passes away. The tide which should have been taken at the flood has begun to ebb. 2. let more often, the power of the law of habit. Opportunities may be plentiful, but tha habit of resisting the call to use them has become fixed, and therefore it it really " tou late" tor the man, even when he might if he would seize upon them for Ua good W« ring—
" And while the lamp holds out to ban The vilest sinner may return."