GENTLEMEN,

TO THE EDITORS OF THE CHRISTIAN HERALD.

THROUGH the medium of your very useful Miscellany, I beg leave to offer a few particulars of my life, in the hope that they may meet the eye of some individual whose situation now may correspond in some respects to what mine formerly was; and if so, may it prove, through the blessing of God, the means of leading him to serious reflection upon his state and character, and induce him to take a personal view of that gulph of eternal despair which awaits the finally impenitent, and those who like him continue to turn a deaf ear to the counsels of the Most High!

I was born of respectable parents, who occupied what is generally termed the middle station of society. I lost my father at a very early period of life, and was left by Providence to the joint care of my mother and a very pious and affectionate female relation. I think I can recollect of giving very early indications of a serious turn of mind, which of course must have been considerably improved by the pious instructions which at that time I received. For many years I attended a Sabbath evening school, conducted by the then worthy minister of my parish, and also a weekly meeting, where he instructed youths from twelve years and upwards in the knowledge of the Word of God. I left the first of these, and preferred receiving the instructions which a pious father was in the weekly habit of communicating to his family on a Lord's day evening. Here of course greater order was kept; and on account of the limited number in attendance, the important lessons of religion were more directly and personally applied, and I trust were also more forcibly brought home to my conscience. I mention this circumstance merely because it brought me into contact with a religious circle which strengthened impression, and gave a tone to my conduct of which I was never able to divest myself. In this way I went on for some time, with little or no variation, either in my external circumstances, or in my internal state of feeling. Many of my school-fellows were addicted to profane swearing, and to taking the name of God in vain; for whichas it was then a practice I abhorred, and a wickedness I sincerely lamented-I did not fail to reprove them. This frequently drew down upon me the reproach of being a hypocrite, and exposed me to the contemptuous sneers of these youthful scoffers.

From all that I can recollect of my state of mind at that time, I was, in the true sense of the word, a legalist. To the performance of the law I sought for justification, and external

obedience flowed entirely from the fear of coming judgment, not at all from the love of Christ constraining to obedience, nor from any pleasure which I felt impelling me to seek to perform the requirements of the Divine law. I frequently felt the duty of prayer an intolerable burden- a form which must be gone through-and which I could not then have attempted to give up without endangering my internal peace and security. With respect to my outward conduct, it was in general regulated by the example of those whom I was taught to consider as Chris tians; and, of course, a laxity in any part of their conduct, I was ever ready to seize upon in order to justify a similar inconsistency in my own. And here, allow me to remark by way of caution to the professor of Christianity, that it is not the eyes of a world lying in the wicked one only that are fixed upon him, and ready to turn every flaw of his conduct to the disadvantage of a religious profession; but every inconsistency of character is ready to be imitated by those who are just set out upon a Christian profession, and who perhaps are looking up to him for example, and thus, when perhaps but a little removed from the kingdom of heaven, they may, by their inherent propensity to imitate, have all their religious purposes and pi ous determinations checked, or even utterly destroyed in the bud. Let the exhortation of our Lord (Matt. v. 16.) be ever present to the mind of the Christian. If it be but once forgotten, he not only runs the chance of coming short of the glory of God himself, but he may also-yet unknowingly-be the instrument of involving others in the like transgression.

I come now to the melancholy recital of events, which, it is to be feared, meet the sad experience of many, who, like mys self, have been favoured with early religious instruction; and which, while I relate with sorrow at the recollection of the deceitfulness and depravity of my own heart,-it is not, I hope, without a grateful reflection upon the Divine patience and mercy exercised in my behalf, who, instead of consuming me in the fire of his righteous indignation, has spared me a monument of his long-suffering, for the purpose, I trust, that I may sing his grace and celebrate his love. Pause and wonder, O my soul, that these impressions of piety which now began to be effaced from my mind, were not erased for ever, and then left for an eternity to endure the horrors of an awakened conscience, under the awful and abiding wrath of a just and highly offended God! While I sometimes shudder in thought when I look back upon that precipice of eternal danger where I once stood, a naturally unthankful heart cannot sufficiently express the wonders of that love which stepped forward to my relief, and drew me away from the horrors of that pit of eternal misery

and despair, whither the delusions of Satan, and the foolishness of my own heart, were impelling me.

But to resume:-In the course of providence, the few associates of my earlier days, who had ever displayed any symptoms of serious concern, were one after another removed to a considerable distance, and I was thus necessarily brought into contact with others of a different stamp, and who thought not in the same way upon religious matters. It happened just about this time, that I was also deprived by death of the affectionate regard, and the tender concern, of the female relative above alJuded to, whose superior sense, and the deference with which I at all times submitted to her authority, might perhaps have secured me from those temptations to which I now stood exposed. But such was the Divine will, and who can dispute the wisdom of his dealings with the sons of men? In the midst of that society where I now mingled, I found things which I had all along considered to be of the most serious and important nature, treated with a light indifference; and the religious professor held up to the laugh and scorn of all who were disposed to join in the vain and worse than foolish mockery. Sins of the very worst description, as not only being hateful in the sight of God, but as they are altogether subversive of every thing like peace and good order in society, were either laughed at as innocent pleasures, or palliated as the mere indulgences. of natural desire and passion. Drunkenness was considered in the light of sociality-calculated to strengthen the bonds of friendship, fitted for the promotion of good humour, and to excite innocent amusement. Swearing was held in repute, as giving dignity to man, and emphasis to silly and trifling conversation. Think, with fearful anticipation, ye who thus poi son the minds of the young, and carry the destructive principles of sin into the bosom of your families-think upon that hour in which you must give in your awful account, of having not only destroyed yourselves, but as also having involved others in similar destruction. And, O be warned, ye youthful votaries of sin, to flee such temptation, and listen not to such distorted accounts of religion as you may be now accustomed to hear. Hear the warning voice of conscience, and the invitation of the Word to repent, and seek for mercy to that fountain of blood which you are now trampling under foot, lest the enemy come upon you like a flood, and you perish when there shall be none to deliver.

Under the influence of such example, and in immediate contact with such principles, it was morally impossible that I could escape. I was in possession of no counteracting principles that are at all worthy of the name. Conscience I attempted to stifle. I too happily succeeded in my attempt, and thus I was left devoid of power to stem the impetuosity of the torrent. It came upon me imperceptibly, and soon overwhelmed in its progress the entire remnant of my religious principles. But what followed, I shall defer to a future Number of your work, if you shall at present do me the favour to insert this ;—and I remain, Gentlemen, yours, &c.

JACOBUS.

ON THE ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT.

[Continued from p. 174.]

BUT besides the express declarations of Scripture, regard ing the eternity of punishment, a strong confirmation of this doctrine arises from a consideration of the price which was paid for the redemption of the soul. For, on the supposition that the sufferings of the wicked shall only be for a finite period, would not the whole Christian system be an impeachment of the Divine wisdom, and a needless waste of the Divine love? If it were possible that after any period of suffering, not absolutely infinite, the wicked should bear the full weight of wrath which their transgressions deserved, and should then be restored to happiness; would we not have reason to say, that God had accomplished by a gift of infinite value an end altogether disproportioned to it, and unworthy of it? For, if men were ever to be freed from punishment, would not the humiliation, and sufferings, and death of Immanuel, be a prodigious waste of the Divine wisdom and love, in effecting the salvation of a part of the human race, and that only from a temporary punishment? And could not the prayer, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," have been easily heard and answered, and the cup made to pass to us, and the glory and honour of the justice and truth of God maintained, while at the same time the final salvation of sinners would have been secured? If any shall say, that the period of our punishment would have been so great, that the scheme of our redemption loses in a manner nothing of its grandeur,-I reply, that its grandeur, when put in the balance with a redemption from an eternity of woe, dwindles into entire nothingness and vanity. If we are to judge of any doctrine from its practical tendency-from its direct bearings on our views of the character of God, and on the gra

titude and love which we owe him,-surely the doctrine of a temporary hell is calculated, in a high degree, when considered in connection with the wonderful scheme of redemption, to lessen our ideas of the wisdom of God, and our love to him. Will a creature, that is delivered only from a limited duration of suffering, see the same reason to admire God as unsearchable in his ways, or the same depth of obligations to love and serve Him, when, without his omnipotent interposition, he might, by enduring for a determined period the wrath he had incurred, have delivered himself,-as the creature who believes himself rescued, at an expence altogether incalculable, from misery utterly overwhelming and endless, and from which he could never have escaped, but for the great salvation of God? We are often struck with the astonishing display of the love of God, in the gift of his Son, to a world like ours, so insignificant in appearance, when compared with the magnitude and number of the other works of creation; and a highly eloquent, impressive and excellent writer of the present day, has shewn, that we are not warranted to confine the effects of the mission of the Saviour solely to this globe, and the creatures who inhabit it; but without taking into consideration the mighty tide of additional happiness it may diffuse through the myriads of angels who surround the throne of the Eternal, or the overwhelming dismay and consternation it may shoot through the dark and wide and howling regions of despair-and without pretending to conjecture (for on such a subject conjecture would be vain) what effects it may produce in other provinces of the universe, and among other orders of beings, of whose existence we have no proof, except what may be drawn from analogy ;we may dare the greatest infidel philosopher or calculator that exists, to prove, that there would have been any useless lavish ment of the Divine wisdom, mercy, love and goodness, had God been manifested in the flesh, even for the express purpose of saving only a single individual of the human race from everlasting misery. The value of this end could never have been computed it would have been infinitely greater than saving from a duration of punishment, short of eternal, not only the whole of the human race, but all the rational beings that ever were, or that ever shall be created in the universe of God. It is the eternity of our existence that stamps an unutterable value on the happiness of heaven, and impresses an inconceivable solemnity and horror on the miseries of the damned. It is this, with the most exalted views of the person of Jesus, and with the deepest reverence and humility be it spoken, which convinces us, that the Son of God paid not too dear a price, immensely and un

*Dr Chalmers.