Parochial and Plain Sermons

ERE we are told that upon death the spirit of man returns to God. The sacred writer is hot speaking of good men only, or of (ld's chosen people, but of men generally. In the case of all men, the soul, when severed from the body, returns to God. Goal gave it: He ma.de it, lte sent it into tl,e body, and He upholds it there; Ite upholds it in distinct existence, wherever it is. If mfimates the bodv while lire lasts; it returns again, it relapses into the unseen state upon death. Let us steadily conteml,late this truth, which at tiret sight we may ïancy we a]togcther enter into. The point to be considered is this, that every soul of man which is or has been on earth, has a separate existence; and that, in eternity, hot in rime merely,—in the unseen world, hot merely in this,—not only during its mmoEal lire, but ever ïrom the hour of ifs creation, whether joined to a body of flesh or hot.:Nothing is more diffictflt than fo realize that every man has a distinct sorti, that every one of all the millions who lire or have lived, is us whole and independent a being in himself, us if there were no,me else in the whole world lmt he. To explain what I mean: do you think that a eolmnander of an army realizes it, when he sends a body of men on some dangerous service? I ara hot spea.king ns if he were wrong in so sending theln; I only ask in lnatter of faet, does he, think you, eommonly tmderstand that eaeh of those poor nen has a smd, a sort1 as dear fo himself, as preeious in its nature, as his own? Or does he hot rather look on the body of lnen eolleetively, as one lnass, as parts of a whole, as but the wheels or springs of some grea.t machine, fo whieh he assigns the individuality, not fo each soul that. goes to make if up? This instance will show what I mean, and lmw open we all lie to the remark, that we do hot nnderstand tlm doctrine of the distinct individuality of tbe hmnan soul. We elass men in lnasses, as we might eolmeet the stones of a building. Consider otu" eommon way of regarding lfistory, polit.ics, commerce, and the like, and you will own that I speak truly. We generalize, and lay down laws, and then contemplate these ereat.ions of our own minds, and aet upon and towards them, as if they were the real things, dropping what are more t.ruly sueh. Take another instance: when we talk of national greatness, what does if mean? Vlxy, if really means that a certain distinct definite number of immortal individual beings happen for a few years tobe in circumstanees to act together and one upon another, in such a way as to be able to aet upon the world at large, to gain an aseendancy over the world, fo gain power and wealth, and fo IV] F look like one, and to be talked of and tobe looked up to as one. They seem for a short rime to be some one thing: and we, from onr habit of living hy sight, regard them as one, and drop the notion of their being any thing else. And when this one dies and tbat one dies, we forger that it is the psage of separate immortal beings into an unseen state, that the whole which appears is but appearance, and that are the realit.îes. ]qo, we think though fresh and fi'esh men die, men are bon, so that the whole is the coml)onent parts nothing of this; but and fresh and fresh ever shifting, yet we forger all that drop away, and are insensible to all that are added; and we still think that this whole which we call file nation, is one and the saine, and that the individuals who corne and go, exist only in it and for if, and are but as the grains of a heap or the leaves of a tree. Or again, survey some popnlous town: crowds are pouring through the streets; some on foot, some in carriages; while the shops are fifll, and the bouses too, could we sec into them. Every part of it is full of life. Hence we gain a general idea of sp]endour, magnificence, opulence, nd enerT. Bu wha.t is the truth? why, that cvery heing in tht great concourse is his own centre, and all things about him are but sbades, but a "vain shadow," in which he "walketh and disquieteth himself in vain." Ite has his own hopes and fears, desires, judgments, and aires; he is everything to himself, and no one else is really any thing. I% one outside of can really touch him, can touch his soul, his immortality; he nust lire with hhnself for ever. He bas a depth xvithin him unfflonmble, n infinite abyss of existence; nd the seene in whieh he bears prt for t.lm momen is bu like a gleam of sunshine upon ifs surface. Again: when we read history, we nmet with accounts of great sl,ughters and nmssacres, great pestilences, famines, couflagrations, and so on; and here again we are accustomed in an especial vay to regard collections of people as if individual nuits. We cannot uuderstand that a multitude is a collcction of immortal souls. I say immortal souls: each of those multitudes, hot only had vhile he was upm earth, but bas a soul, which did in ifs own rime but return to God vho gave it, and not perish, and which now lires unto Him. All those nillions npon millions of human beings qm ever trod the earth nd saw the sun successively, are at this very moment in existence all togethe'. This, I think, you will grant we do hot duly 'ea.lize. All those Canaanites, vhom the chi]dn of Israel slew, every one of them is somevhere in the universe, now at this moment, where God bas assigned him a place. We mad, "They utterly destroyed all that was in" Jericho, "young and old." Again, as to Ai; " So it was that all that fell that day, both of men and vomen, -ere twelve thousand." Again, "Joshua took 3[a.kkedh, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, ttebron, I)ebir, and smote them vith the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein. '' Every one of those soals still lires. They had their sepaa-ate thoughts and feelings when on earth, they bave them now. They had theh" likings and pursuits; they gained 'hat. they thought good and enjoyed x Jos. ri. viii. x.

84 Thc [zdiz,idaily of [he i; and they sti]] somewhere or offset live, and they then did in the flesh surely has its influence upon their prescrit destiny. They lire, reserved for a day which is to corne, when all nations shall stand 1,efore God. P, ut why should I speak of the devoted nati,ns of Canaan, when Scripture speaks of a wider, more eomprehensive judgment, and in one 1,lace appears t,o hint. ai the presênt state ç,f aw%l waiting in whieh they are who were involved in if? What an overwhelming judgment was the Flood  all human 1,eings ou the earth but eight wcre eut oir by it.. Th,nt old world of souls still lives, though ifs materi,nl tabernacle was dmwned. Seripture, I say, signifies this; obseurely indeed, yet still, as if al»pears, eertainly. St. Peter speaks of "the spirits in prison," that is, thc in prison, who had been "disobedient," "when once the long-suffering of God waited in the da.ys of Noah. '' Those many, many souls, who were violently expelled ri'oto their bodies by the waters of the deluge, were alive two thousand years afterwards, when St. l'eter n'ote. Surely they are alive still. And so of all the other multitudes we any where read of.—All the Jews who perished in the siege of Jerusalem, still lire; Sennacherib's army still lires; Sennacherib himself still lires; all the persecutors of the Chm'ch that ever were, are still alive. The kings of ]3abylon are still alive; they are still, as they are scribed by the Prophet, weak indeed now, and in "hell beneath," bug having an accourir fo give, and waiting  1 Pet. iii. 20.

for the day of summons. All who have ever gained  naine in the world, all the might.y men of war t.hat ever were, all the grea stesmen, ail the cmft,y counsdlors, all the schemiug a.spirants, all t.he reckless adventurers, all the covet.ous t, raders, all the proud voluptuavies, are st.ill in being, though helpless and nnprofitable. 3alaam, Saul, Joah, Ahitlmphel, good and bad, wise and ignorant, rieh and poor, each has his separate place, eaeh dwells ly himself in t.hat sphere of lig'ht or darkness, which he has provided for himself here. What a view this sheds upan history! We m'e aecustomed to read it as a tale or a fiction, and we forger that it eoneerns immortnl beigs, who eannot be swept away, who are wlmt they were, however this earth ma.y change. And so again all the names we see written on monuments in ehurehes or churehyards, ail the writers whose ha.mes and works we see in libraries, all the workmen who raised the great buildings, far and near, which are the wonder of the world, they are all in God's remembranee, t.hey all lire. Itis the saine wit.h those whom we ourselves have seen, who now are depa-rt.ed. I do hot now speak of those whom we have known and loved. These we eannot forget; we cannot rid oto" memory of them: bttç I speak of all whom we have cvcr seen; it is also true that they lire. Where we know not, but lire they do. We may reeolleet when children, perhaps, mme seeing a certain person; and it is ahnost like a dream to us now, that we did. It seems like an accident whieh goes and is all over, like some ereature of the moment, wlfieh has m existence beyond it. The tain falls, and the wind blows;

and showers and storms lmve no existence beyond the time when we felt them; they are nothing in themselves. But if we lmve bu once seen any child of Admn, we lmve seen an immoral soul. I lins hot passed away as a breeze or sunshine, buL iL lives; i lives a this moment in one of those many Ilaces, whether of bliss or misery, in which all souls are reserved untfl the end. Or again, let us call to mind those whom we knew a little better, though hot intimaely:all who died suddcnly or before their rime, all whom we have seen in high hcalth and spirits, all wholn we have seen in circumstances which in any way brought out their clmracters, and gave them SOlne place in our memories. Thcy are gone from our sight, but they aH lire st, each with ]ris own thoughts; they are waiting for the judgment. I think we shall see that these thoughts concerning others are hot familiar to us; yet no one cau say they are hot just. And I think too that the thougts concerning others, wlfich arc familiar to us, are hot those which become believers in the Gospel; whereas these which I have been tracing, do become us, as tending to make us think less of this world, with ifs hopes anti fears, its plans, successes, and enjoylnents. Moreover, every one of all the souls which bave ever been on earth is, as I have already implied, in oue of two spiritual states, so distinct ri'oto one almther, that the one is the subject of God's favour, and the other under His wrath; the one on the way to eternal happiness, the other to eternal misery. This is true of the dead, and is true of the living also. All are tending one vay or the other; there is no middle or neutral state for any one; though as fa.r as the sight of the extcrnal world goes, all men seem to be in a aiddle state common to one and all. Yet, nmch as men look the saine, and impossible as it is for us to say where each nmn stands in God's sight, there are two, and but two cltsses of men, and these have characters and destinies as far al)art in their tendencies as light and darkness: this is the case even of those who are in the body, and itis much more true of those vho have 1)assed into the unseen state. lTo thought of course is more overl)owering than that every one who lires or has lived is destined for endless bliss or torment. It is far too vast for us to realize. But what especially increases the mind's confusion when it attcmpts to do so, is just this vcry thiug which I have been mentioning, that there are but these two states, that evcry individual among us is either in one or the other,—that the states in vhich we individually are 1)laced are so unspeakably contra T to each other, whi]e we look so like each other. It is certainly quite beyond our understandings, that all we should now be living together as relatives, friends, associates, neighbours; that we should be familiar or intimate vith each other, that there should be among us a general intercourse, circulation of thought, interchange of good offices, the action of mind Ul)On mind, and will upon will, and conduct upon c.onduct, and yet after all that there shotfld be a bottomless gulf between us, rmming among us ialvisibly, and cutting us off into two 1)arties;—not indeed a gttlf impassable here, God be 13raised!—hot impassable till

88 T/c lndividuali O, of t]c Soul. we pass into the next world, sti rea]ly existing, so tha every person we mee is in God's unen'ing eye either on he one side or the other, and, did He please to take him hence at once, would final himself either in paradise or in the place of torment. Out Lord observes this concerning the Day of Judgment, "Two women shall be gTinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other lcf. Two men shall be in the field; the one shaH 1,e taken, and the other lcft." Wha makes this thought still more solcnm, is that we have rcason to Snlq,ose that souls on the wrong side of the line are far more numerous than those on the righk I is wroag to speculate; but itis sale tobe alanned. This much we know, that Christ sa.ys expressly, "Many are ealled, few are ehosen;" "Broad is the way that leadeth fo destruction, and many there he who go in thereat;" whereas "narrow is the way that leadeth to lire, and few there be who find if." If then if is dicult, as I have sa.id if is, to reaHze that all who ever 1L-ed st.ffi lire, itis as diNcult at least. to believe that they are in a stage either of ernal test or etenml woe; t.hat all whom we have known and who are gone, are, and that we who still lire, were we now t çe, should then at once be, either in the one state or the other. Na.y, I will say more: when we think seriously on the subject, if is ahnost impossible to comprehed, I do hot say that a great number, but that any person kvhom we see belote us, however msatisfaetory appear- ces may be, is reNly under God's (spleasure, and  a state of reprobation. So hard is if go We by Nith  People feel it o be a diNculy to have to adroit certain other doctrines of the Church, which are more or lcss contrary to sight. For instance, they say as an argument against regeneration in Bal)tisln, "Is if lossible that all who lmve been baptized can hure l_)ecn l»Jrn again, considering what lives they lcad?" ïhey make the evidence of sight tell against a doctrine which derounds their faith. Yet, ai'ter all, is there any thing more startling, more dilficult fo believe, than that any one person, whom we see, however sinful his lit'c, is at. present undcr God's etcrnal wrath, and would incur if if he were fo die af once, and will incur if Ulfless he repents? This is what we cammt bring ourselves to believe. All we commonly allow is, that certain persons are what we call "in d«tngcr of hell.":Now, if by using this cautious lhrase we mean merely to exl,ress, that irreligious men may relient before death, or tlmt nmn may seem t.o be irreligious fo us, who are hot so, and therefore that if is saler fo speak of men being in danger of God's wrath than actually under if; so t)ar is well. But we are in error if we mean, as is often the case, to deny thereby that irreligious men, as such, whether man can ascertain them or hot, are at flfis very time, not only in danger, but actually under the 1)ower of (;od's wrafl. ttea]thy men in a sic]dy country may be said to be in danger of sickness; soldiers in a b.,tt.le are in danger of wounds; but irreligious nmn not only hazard, but do lie under God's etenml curse; and whên we see an irreligious man, we see one who is under it, only we speak gamrdedly, both as hol)ing that he may repent, and as fee]ing that we may be mistaken. But whether or hot arien may be wl:at they seem, or whether or hot they are fo change, certain itis that every one who dies, passes at once into one or other of two states; and if he dies unsanctified and unreconciled to God, into a state of eternal lnisery. How little the world af large realizes this, is shewn by the conduct of surviving friends af ter a loss. Let a person who is taken away have been evcr so notorious a sfimer, over so confirmed a drunkard, ever so neg]ectful of ('hristian ordinances, and though they bave no reason for SUlposing any thing hopeful was omg," • on in his lnind, yct they will generally be found fo believe that he has gone to hc,'tven; they will eonfidently talk of his being at i, eaee, of his pains being at an end, of his happy release, and the like. They edarge on these subjeets; whereas their duty lies in keeping silence, waithg in trembling hope, and being resigned. Now, why is it they speak and think in this ruminer? Apparently because they eannot eoneeive it possible that he or that they should be lost. Even the worst men have qualities whieh cndear them to those who eome near them. They bave lmman affections in some shape or other. Even the witch of Endor showed a sympathy and kindness towards her guest., whieh nmve us. Hmnan feelings emmot exist in hell, and we eannot bring ourselves fo think that they are subjeets of hell who have theln. And for this reason men eannot adlnit the bare possibility of another being lost; they rejeet the idea, and therefore, when a lnan dies, they eonelude, as the only alternative, that he must be in Abraham's bosom; and they boldly say so, and they catch at some half sentence vhieh he said during his illness, when he was calmer or

T]zc Zndividz«ality of t]e Soz«L 9 I weaker, or aL the ease with whieh he died, in confirmation of tiroir belief. &lld if iL is diculL to believe flaL flmre are any persons among us aL this nlolnenL in a sLaLe of spiriLual deaLh, how shnH we undersLand, whaL perehanee is the case, flmL Lhere are nmny sueh, peflmps nmltitudes how shaE we persuade ourselves of tire grea LruLli that, in spiLe of ouward appearanees, human society, as we filid iL, is bue a pare of m invisible world, and is really divided inLo bue Lwo eompanies, Lhe sons of God, he ehdren of Lhe wieked one; flmL SOlne SOlflS are nistered unLo by &ngels, oflmrs led eapLive by devils; flmL SOlne are "feEow-eiLizens of tire saints," and of the invisible "household of God," and oflers companiols of flmse His enemies in ime pasL, who now are waiLiug prison for the judmen. How blessed would iL be, if we reaEy understood Lhis XçqiaL a change iL would produee in our Lhoughts, uess we were uLLerly reprobate, o understand whaL and where we are,aeeounable beings on their trial, wifl God for tiroir friend and tire devil for their enemy, and advanced a certain way on their road either to heaven or to heD. o trufls indeed, ever so awful, ever so fully brought home to file mind, will change it,  the love of God and of holiness be hot there; but none among us, as we may humbly trust, is in this reprobate state. One wishes to flink tiret no one bas so done despite to the Spirit of grace, and so sinned against the Blood of the Covenant, as to have nofling of his regenerate nature left to him; no one among us, but, if he shut ls eyes to fle external world, and opened them t.o the world within him, eontemplated his real state and l-rospects, and ealled o mind lis pas life, would be l_r»@ fo repent.anee and amendmen. Endeavom" t.hel, my lwethren, to realize tha you have souls, and pray çlod fo enable you fo do so. Edeavour fo disengage your t.houghts and opinions from the things tha are seen; look a things as (lod ltoks a them, and jndge çf t.hem as IIe judges. Pass a very few years, and you will aetually experienee what as yeg you are eallcd on to believe. There will be no need of the eflbrt of mind fo which I invite you, when you bave passed into the unseen state. There will be no need «,f shutting your eyes fo this world, wlen this world has vanished ri'oto you, and you have nothing belote vtu but the throne of God, and the slow but eontinual movenwnts aboug i in preparation of the judgmeng. Iii that interval, when you are in that vas reeeptaele of disembodied sonls, wlat will be your thoughts about the wofld whicl you lave left! how poor will then seem to you its highest aires, lmw faint its keenest 1,1easures, eompared with the eternM aires, the infinite pleasures, of whieh you wN at lengt.h feel your smfls to be capable! O, my breflren, let t.his flought be upon you day by day, espeeially when you are tempted to sin. Avoid sin as a serpent; it looks and promises well; it bites aftemrards. It is dreadfifl in memory, dreadful even on earth; but in that awful pefiod, wlen the fever,f life is over, and you are waiting in silence for the judgment, with nothing to distraet your thonghts, who ean say how dreadftfl may be the menlory of ss done 5 the body? Then fle very apprelension of their punishment, when Christ shall suddenly visit, will doubtless outweigh a thonsand-fold the gratification, such as it was, which you felt in COlmnitting them; and if so, what will be the proportion between if and that punishlnent, if after all if be actually inflicted? Let us lay to heart our Saviour's own most merciful words, "Be hot afi'aid," He says, "of them that kill the body, and after that bave no lnore that they ean do. But I will forewarn you, whom ye shall fear. Fear Him, which, after I[e hath killed, hath power fo cast into hell. Yea, I say uuto you, Fear IIim."