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it is only the pleasure of the Lord that shall prosper.

3. The appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light in the gospel (2 Tim. i. 10); for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. XV. 22).

4. Eternal death is disproportioned to an offence committed in time, and does not accord with God's justice, which is everlasting; and is moreover, by His sacred promise, always to be tempered with mercy; shall not the God of all the earth do right? (Gen. xviii. 25). Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom (Heb. i. 8).

5. St. Paul expressly states that the good pleasure which God hath purposed in Himself was, that in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him (Ephes. i. 10).

6. It is a terrible libel on God to affirm that he could have made creatures who,according to His foreknowledge and by His foreordination, would be exposed to endless punishment; and this he must affirm who asserts that the soul of the sinner shall live for ever in a state of punishment.

7. Though it is said that the wages of sin is death, and the death spoken of is defined as suffering the vengeance of eternal fire (Jude 7), yet God has arranged a time for "the restitution of all things," and to bring them all under the dominion of Christ.

8. God has already, in consistency with His divine attributes, shown

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tion; godliness alone has "promise of this life, and of that which is to come (2 Tim. iv. 8).

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3. Christ has brought life and immortality to light; they were seen darkly before; now we see them plainly, and have been shown how they are to be obtained, viz., by repentance, love, and new obedience; thus it is that Christ makes us alive.

4. "Ye shall not surely die" was one of the delusions of the tempter; yet Eve did die; man cannot measure justice with God's measuring rod, unless he takes it as God has given it, and said He will use it. The soul that sinneth, it shall die, unless repentance be shown. Abraham was right in saying, "That the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from Thee," the converse is also right.

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5. What then is meant by the words of the Psalm cx. 1, which is quoted with approbation by St. Paul (Heb. i. 13)? The Lord said unto My Lord, Sit thou at My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool," for to be made the footstool of a conqueror is not to be advanced to glory, honour, and immortality, eternal life.

6. It is quite as great a libelthat is, none at all--to affirm, what nobody doubts, that God has made His law, like Himself, unchangeable everywhere and under all circumstances, though the breaking of it anywhere and at any time entails incalculable suffering, not only on the transgressor but on many others.

7. If we are unable to trust the threatenings of God, how can we trust His promises? If all our faith is to be reposed on God's infinite mercy, there can be none left for His infinite justice; this would result in a confusion, not a restitution of all things.

8. "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." He that despised

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Himself" able to be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly." "Man's extremity is God's opportunity," and the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. He is able to save to the uttermost, and His mercy is everlasting. Is His mercy clean gone for ever? doth His promise fail for evermore? (Psa. lxxix. 8). Is He more vindictive than His creatures, who punish to reform, not to revenge?

9. Man's life is too short and too uncertain to permit us to think that any sin He could commit in time will be punished through all eternity.

10. The saved could not be happy in heaven if they saw their nearest and dearest absent, and knew that they were in perdition to all eternity, and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus shows us that feelings survive decease. Unless, therefore, God deadens all the interests of love in the hearts of the redeemed in heaven, the eternal punishment of the wicked would be an eternal grief to the saints.

11. Jesus Christ through death has destroyed the power of death and freed mankind from the curse of the law. Those who are held captive by a lie here, will know the truth through the judgments of God, and be brought into the ministry of life and reconciliation.

12. "God, in revelation of Himself, Singles out love from all His attributes,

As that by which He glories to be known."

He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy (Micah vii. 18). Therefore

"It is unjust Alike to made and Maker to believe The Eternal should a creatural soul invest

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Moses' law died without mercy; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know Him that hath said, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay (Heb. x. 31). It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

9. But if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith will it be salted? and such are all those "who are reprobate as concerning the faith.”

10. True, but neither did the rich man indulge a hope, nor did Abraham suggest a possibility, of future salvation; and Abraham affirmed that if they believed not Moses and his writings, neither would they believe though one rose from the dead. If this was true of the old dispensation, how much more must it be of those who now reject Christ! They are verily guilty of crucifying the Lord afresh, and putting Him to an open shame.

11. This would change the truth of God into a lie, for now is the accepted time; it would necessitate a purgatory, and it would induce men to put off repentance till the day of grace was past. We ought not to trust our soul's salvation to a may be.

12. This argument begs the question; man was not formed and framed immortal only to suffer pain. Facts abundantly show that pleasure has been so abundantly bestowed that men find pleasure even in sin, so they become lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, and unfit themselves for the holy life of heaven. W must either deny the immortality of the soul, or the responsibility of Dn, or the justice and trustworthinis of God, or believe that man, hav

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With deathlessness to suffer pain alone."

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"It seems," as the great Christian philosopher, John Locke, said, "a strange way of understanding a law which requires the plainest and directest words that by death should be meant 'eternal life in misery.' Archbishop Whately says that perdition, death, destruction, which are employed to express the doom of the condemned, mean that they are to be really and literally destroyed, and cease to exist, not that they are to exist for ever in a state of wretchedness."

13. The CROSS of Christ is the appropriate type of Christianity. It is endeared to men's hearts, and consecrated as an emblem of love, patience, and self-sacrifice-of universal love. Christ is long-suffering to usward; not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. iii. 9). Thus the Redeemer has glory in the redemption, in His life we have hope, and we feel that death will restore or raise us to Him, to whom all is to be made subject, that all may glory, because glorified in Him.

14. God has declared that "all flesh shall see the salvation of God" (Luke iii. 6). He knows this, and His word is true, and all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Besides, Christ died for all; and who can pluck any of those for whom He died out of His hand? He was the propitiation for the sins of men; so that "every knee should bow, and every tongue confess to God."

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ing sinned and been impenitent, must suffer the irremediable misery to which he has himself been brought by his love of sin, a misery which is indicated by Jesus as being passed "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark ix. 44, 46, 48), and this is thrice repeated. God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good? (Numb. xxiii. 19). Without holiness none can see the Lord and live.

13. In the parable, the husbandmen (Mark xii. 1-9) who did not reverence the son of the lord of the vineyard, the last of the means of obtaining the fruit of the vineyard, were destroyed. God "limitethacertain day" for repentance (Heb. iv. 7). Then the latter end is worse than the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness (2 Pet. ii.21.) They shall drink the wine of God's wrath without mixture (Rev. xiv. 9), and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever (Rev. xiv. 11), whosoever receiveth the nark of the beast.

14. To see is not to partake of salvation. The sacrifice of Christ would be of none effect if there were no ultimate difference between the future of believers and of unbelievers. It was to save those who believe in Him that Christ died. He that believeth not, He affirms, shall be condemned. We dare not gainsay Jesus, who affirmed that the wicked shall depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

Y. A. G.

The Societies' Section.

THE FUTURE OF MECHANICS' INSTITUTES.

THE 33rd annual conference of delegates from institutions connected with the Yorkshire Union was held on 8th June, at Selby, under the presidency of Mr. Baines, M.P. The chairman congratulated the delegates on the advance made since the union met in that town twelve years ago, not merely in number of members, but on the fact that the teaching was of a higher character, and aimed, through instruction in science and art, to meet the want experienced in regard to technical knowledge. These institutions, if they were to continue successful, must endeavour to promote, in a still greater degree, class work, and encourage lectures of a systematic rather than of a desultory character.

Mr. James Kitson, jun., read a paper on "The Future Work of Mechanics' Institutes."

It may

fairly be assumed that a general system of primary education will be passed by Parliament, and we may proceed to the consideration of what will be required of mechanics' institutes under the new state of things. When the new schools are universally established and in full operation, the addition to the numbers of those who will be able and ready to make use of the means for instruction afforded by mechanics' institutions will be very large, and it will also call for a great change in the character and constitution of those institutions. The pupils of the primary schools leaving at the age of thirteen or fourteen will come out, with six or seven years' training, at the time when their minds

are prepared by a systematic course of teaching to acquire without great difficulty a higher instruction, and much of what they have previously learned will be of small value if their education is not continued. Good secondary schools must be provided, and here, I think, will be found a great work for mechanics' institutes-a work for which they may be found well adapted. A systematic course of evening classes should be provided to continue to manhood the education begun in the national schools. The numbers of those who will be anxious to avail themselves of this course will doubtless be very great; but if the principle of compulsion is a sound and good one, and for the advantage of the individual and the community-and I am of opinion that it is-it should be carried out to the fullest extent. I should then see nothing but good in applying it to secure the benefits that would arise from a prolonged systematic course of teaching. In a great part of Germany, amongst the obligations of apprenticeship, attendance at lessons, which are given in the evening and on Sunday, are required. At Carlsruhe there are morning lessons given before the commencement of the hours of labour; these are obligatory to the age of seventeen. Prussian regulations forbid the employment of young persons under the age of sixteen, until they can read and write. Now that the law has prescribed the time during which a young person may be employed, it has shortened the hours

of labour and extended the hours of leisure. Consequently, great care should be taken for the sake of the individual that the liberty granted does not degenerate into licence, and, instead of being a blessing, prove rather an injury. It would be no serious restraint, say, to order youths from fourteen to sixteen years of age to attend and receive instruction for two hours a night, four or five times in the week. Much might be acquired in this time by a systematic course given to those who had received a good primary education. State assistance should be given to night classes in mechanics' and other institutions, payable on results, to enable them to make this needed provision. I think some steps should be taken by the union to ascertain to what extent the minister of education would be prepared to grant assistance to night schools. To mechanics' institutes in many small towns and villages the passing of an education bill should bring direct pecuniary advantages, which will place valuable resources at their command for further work. The school boards in various districts will require school buildings, which it will be in the power of mechanics' institutes to offer; the rent thus obtainable will add materially to the resources of the institution, and managers should be ready to seek for this employment of their buildings. It may also be observed that as the friends of education will compose the school boards, and be always the friends of mechanics' institutes, if not frequently the managers also, an opportunity will be afforded of arranging a complete continuous system of education, from which great benefits may be anticipated. The more we succeed in inducing Government to do for us, the more should we endeavour to do for ourselves, particularly as we

shall be stimulated in the future to greater exertions, by the knowledge that our work will yield greater results. Much is to be accomplished by voluntary work, and much may be got out of it if it is well directed. In our manufacturing towns, far from the seats of learning, we are often at a loss for disciplined leaders, and I believe that one trained educator sent into towns or districts of 50,000 or 60,000 inhabitants, to organize educational movements and direct their operations in co-operation with the friends of education, would do an amount of good, and secure results far beyond anything that could be anticipated. Many of us want to give a good education to the adults seeking for it, but we do not know how it should be given and of what it should consist. Mechanics' institutions should give instruction in art and science to youths and adults in evening classes. Instead of the present primary instruction, I should like to see all in some way doing like the Working Men's Union in Berlin, which is composed of about 3,000 members, to whom instruction is given every evening in such subjects as geometry, algebra, drawing, accounts, chemistry, natural history, French and English languages, &c. these lessons are joined general meetings for discussions and lectures on various subjects. For such work as this mechanics' institutes were designed; to it they should devote themselves.

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Discussion followed on lectures and on class-work; and in the evening Mr. E. Chadwick, C.B., presided at a public meeting, which was addressed by Mr. Baines, Mr. Kitson, Alderman Law, Mr. Huth, Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Allison, the president of the Selby Institute (formerly of Leeds). The next meeting of the union will be held at Keighley.

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