SERMON III.

WHY WILL YE DIE?

Ezek. xxxiii. 11. Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?

THE ministers of the gospel are sent to endeavor to arouse their fellow-men to a sense of their danger, and to win them to God. We are to tell, in simple but solemn language, all that we know about God, and Christ, and heaven, and hell; to rebuke, to warn, and to invite, by all the means that God may put in our power in order to save them. We are to throw ourselves in the paths of sinners; and to attempt to stay their goings as they travel down to death. If they will die, our duty is plain. It is to be found throwing obstacles in their way as they go to ruin; addressing ourselves to their reason and their conscience; reminding them of death and the judgment; and appealing to them by all that is inviting in heaven, and fearful in future wo, not to go down to the place of despair, to be the everlasting enemies of God. We have no choice here. We must warn them as if they were to die; we must speak to them as if they were in danger of eternal ruin.

Who are they who are thus to be addressed? They are the wicked :—the wicked, as the Bible uses that term -the impenitent, and the unbelieving, and the violators. of the law of God, of every age, and character, and complexion. The Bible makes but two grand divisions among men as there will be but two at the day of judgment the righteous and the wicked; they who serve God, and they who serve him not. In the one class are the redeemed, the renewed, the praying, the pure, the friends of Jesus; in the other they who are unrenewed, unsanctified, and unforgiven; they who do not pray, and who do not love the Redeemer, and who have not a well

founded hope of heaven-be they profane, and sensual, and corrupt; be they proud and haughty; or be they amiable and externally moral; or be they accomplished and winning in their manners. I say the externally moral, the accomplished, the winning in their manners. I say it, because the Bible classes them there. I know of no promise to them of salvation because they are such; I see no statement that one man is to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ, and another by accomplishment, and freedom from gross vices. A heart exceedingly wicked may reside beneath a most attractive outward mien. Fascinating manners are not faith in Jesus Christ; nor is amiableness the love of God. There are but two classes among you to-day-the righteous and the wicked. There are but two paths that are trod by mortals—the narrow way, and the broad way. There are but two places to be occupied at the judgment-the right, and the left hand of the Judge. There are but two worlds which are to receive us all at last-heaven and hell. There are no Elysian fields which you may traverse for whom the Christian's heaven would be too holy and pure; or where you might possess and exhibit your amiableness and accomplishments apart from, the grossly vile in the future world. There is a line which divides the human race, and which will divide it forever. On one side are the lovers of God, and on the other are the wicked; and that portion of the latter class who are present here to-day I desire to address, and to say to you, "Why will ye die ?"

6

Death means here eternal death. For why, or how can God address mortal men, and ask them why they should die and be laid in their graves? They cannot help it. He has himself said, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." "It is appointed unto men once to die," and "There is no escape in that war.” To ask us why we should die,' and be consigned to the grave, and moulder back to dust, as if we could avoid it, would be to tantalize and mock us- and God would not, could not do it. But to ask us why we will persevere and go down to hell, when we might be saved; why we would dwell with devouring fire, when we might dwell amid the glories of heaven, is a question worthy of a God, and

is fit to be deeply pondered by every traveller to eternity.

I shall endeavor to enforce that question. I shall ad dress this part of my audience, with the earnest prayer that they may hear this question of their Maker to-day; and with a regard to my account to my Maker, and to your good, I shall submit to you now a few propositions sustained by my text, and designed to set its meaning before you.

I. It is the unalterable purpose of God that the wicked shall turn or die. In confirmation of this proposition, I refer you to the text. There it is of necessity implied that it is the solemn purpose of God that the wicked shall turn or die. He would not expostulate with them in this solemn manner if there were no danger, and if no such purpose were formed. It is not the manner of our Maker to assume earnestness when it is uncalled for; or to use words that are unmeaning; or to make appeals that are designed needlessly to alarm men. He does not trifle with the creatures which he has made. He does not hold up imaginary objects of dread. When God places himself in our path; when he lifts up the voice of solemn warning and remonstrance; when he tells of danger, it is no imaginary scene. It is no work of the fancy. It is real. The highest proof of the reality and certainty of danger and guilt, is for God to speak of them as if they were so.

Many persons profess to hold that all men will be saved. Many men feel that in some indefinable way sinners may yet escape future wrath. Many feel, and desire to feel, that there is no danger, and that all that is said of eternal death is the work of fancy and of fiction. It is not unnatural to dread to think on it-for it is fitted to produce alarm and pain; and it is not unnatural to wish that there were no danger, and no death, and no hell. But look at this subject, and see if your Maker's earnestness and his solemn warning furnish no proof that there is danger. You feel, or think, or hope that there is no danger of eternal death, and that alarm is needless. Tell me, then, what is the meaning of the solemn address in the text. Would GOD-the ever blessed and benevolent God, speak of death, when there was none, and of

hell which had no existence? Would he say, 'Why rush into those flames?' when there are no flames? Why go into that pestilential region?' when there is no pestilence? Why go on till you fall down that precipice?' when there is no precipice? Why tread that region of death ?' when there is no death? No. God does not thus speak to men. And when he asks them why they will die; when he entreats them to turn lest they die, it is full proof that unless they repent they must die. There can be no stronger proof of this. And without any impropriety of imagination, or any improper use of Scripture language, God may be regarded to-day as present in this house, and as looking over this congregation, and into each heartand onward to the world of death-and saying to each one, "Why will you die?" He throws himself in the path of the wicked, and by this question assures them that unless they turn they must die. He speaks to the wicked and the thoughtless-to you the gay, and the insensible, and the unconverted, in your path to hell, and puts the solemn question to-day, "Why will ye die ?" Tell me, would he use this language if you were in no danger? Would he use it if he knew that all men were to be saved?

The text does not stand alone. If any man doubts that it is the unalterable purpose of God that the wicked shall turn or die, let him open at pleasure any part of the Bible. "Verily, verily," said the Redeemer, "except a man be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of God." "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." "These shall go away into everlasting punishment." There is no ambiguity here. There is no wish to hide a painful doctrine. There is no concealment. If it be so that there is a world of death, and that the wicked go there, they do not go unapprized of it. They are told what to expect, and what is before them.

The purpose of God on this point has been expressed in every variety of way in the Bible, and in the events of his Providence. In the Bible-by solemn assurance; by warning; by entreaty; by remonstrance; by appeals; by threatening; by the description of the dying and the dead who have gone down to hell. In his Providenceby the cutting off of the wicked; by his judgments on the old world, and on the cities of the plain, "Set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." In his Providence now. Every pain is designed to admonish us. Every hour of sickness; every funeral procession; every open grave reminds us of it. The earth is full of the warnings and of the monuments of his displeasure against sin, and of the assurances that unless the guilty turn it is his unalterable purpose that they shall die. There is no relaxing, no misgiving on the part of God. Six thousand years have made no change in his purpose; and it is as true now as it was in the old world, and in the time of Ezekiel, that unless the wicked turn they shall die.

If I had time, I think I could vindicate this doctrine; at least I could show that the objections against it are unfounded. But I have no time to do it now, and it is not necessary. What I wish to show is, that it is the unchangeable purpose of God that the wicked must turn or perish. The passages of scripture to which I have referred demonstrate it. They would not, they could not stand in a revelation which meant to teach that there was no danger. Language has no terrors more explicit, and none more solemn than these. Here stand these passagesfull of solemn truth, and solemn warning-from age to age, to meet the caviller and the despiser of this generation on his way to hell-and then to meet the caviller and the despiser of the next generation on his way to hell-and thus to warn each successive generation that it is the unalterable law of God that the wicked shall turn or die.

Human opinions and human feelings have no bearing on this doctrine. They do not, they cannot affect it. The Bible travels on from age to age bearing the same fearful doctrine, and is unchanged in its warnings and ap