never more to have any place in its maker's complacent regard, how can the fate of that soul be more fitly described, than as an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord?

This interpretation of the term we are able to justify by other examples of Scriptural representation. For many thous ands of years past there have been legions of the creatures of God confined in chains under darkness; receiving the result of their transgression in a condition of conscious, protracted, ceaseless suffering. The punishment of sinning angels was not the extinction of their being. It was a living death. It is and is to be a living death. They are still reserved unto the day of judgment, then to be sentenced to a still continued endurance of a living death. And the formal and explicit prediction of the doon of wicked men, identifies their doom with that of wicked angels-" Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." If the destruction of the one class is not an extinction of their existence, then, beyond all controversy, the destruction of the other class is not an extinction of their existence. It is an everlasting destruction* It fulfills the exact purport of this form of expression. Burn a book, a billet of wood, a house-who, in the legitimate use of language, would describe such an event as an everlasting destruction. The destruction of a city might possibly be termed everlasting, as indicating the idea that it should never be rebuilt; but the very idea of annihilation precludes all possibility of a return to existence, and renders the employment of such a term meaningless, and out of all propriety. It can be termed an utter, or an absolute destruction; but to apply to it the epithet everlasting, would be a clear violation of the appropriate use of language. Extinction of existence is not everlasting destruction. It is momentary destruc

When existence is absolutely extinguished, the destruction is ended. Instead of being everlasting, it lasts not a moment beyond the point of annihilation. But an endless condition of ruin in the soul that is cast away and as it were dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel, and yet retains the eternal consciousness of its abandonment and of its misery-this will be a precise fulfillment of the threatening of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. Accordingly, when the Bible speaks of the destruction of a man, or a city, or a nation,

This whole class of writers profess a rigid adherence to the literal sense of Scripture. They certainly have no right to object against the interpretation which makes the term everlasting mean, literally lasting forever. On all hands it must be understood to imply a long continued duration. It is an adjective, not of degree, but of time.

in this world, it is described as an utter destruction; but the destruction of the wicked, in the world to come, is declared to be an everlasting destruction.

There are other forms of expression which corroborate this interpretation. A portion of mankind will "awake to shame and everlasting contempt." A man led forth to an ignominious execution, may, for the time, suffer shame in his own bosom and the contempt of the observers; but how can there be everlasting shame and contempt? When countless myriads of ages shall have passed away after one has gone utterly out of exist ence, how can he be said to suffer shame and contempt then, and still onward during the countless myriads of ages yet to come? Will he leave the blush of shame to reflect its crimson image upon the eyes of the living universe ages after the subject of that shame has himself ceased to be; like the pencils of light which astronomers inform us come beaming upon our vision ages after the stars that sent them forth have been swept from the firmament? Shame and everlasting contempt can be the portion of those only who shall exist everlastingly in a condition to suffer them. Without pausing to apply the like reasoning to kindred texts, we will only refer to the sentence to be fulfilled when Christ shall come at the last "to give every man according as his work shall be." "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still, and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Is this the doom of wicked men to the extinction of their existence? Or is it the seal of reprobation set upon those who are still to exist in shame and everlasting contempt? Are not the unjust and the holy assigned alike to a limitless existence, bearing each the ineffaceable stamp of their contrasted characters ?

Here our argument reaches its conclusion. Neither of the four leading positions of this christianized materialism will bear examination. We shall still address men as possessed of immortal souls, and warn them against the death that never dies. "For sadder sight the eye can know,

Than proud bark lost, or seaman's woe,
Or battle fire, or tempest cloud,

Or prey-bird's shriek, or ocean's shroud,
THE SHIPWRECK OF THE SOUL."

ART. IIL-REDEMPTION, AS RELATED TO THE FALL OF THE ANGELS.

THE fall of Satan and his Angels, in the view of that great event taken in this Article, necessitated and has shaped the whole subsequent plan and progress of the Divine administra tion. The original idea, in the mind of God, of making a material universe, filled with the displays, marks, and tokens of His power, wisdom, and goodness; and of peopling it with intelligent moral beings, endowed with ever-growing capacities for knowing, loving, and enjoying Him the Almighty and all-glorious Creator, was conceived in the spirit of a sublime and infinite love. The realization of the idea, however, would necessarily involve the possibility of moral evil. Moreover, since it is not perhaps conceivable that finite free intelligences, if such are to exist at all, could be more favorably circumstanced, in nature and position, to stand in their original holiness, than were the angels in heaven; and since, as a matter of fact, some of the angels fell; it would further seem that the existence of a universe of finite moral beings involved, sooner or later, the certainty no less than the possibility of sin.

If, however, God could so overrule the first outbreak among His creatures, as forever after to insure the perfect holiness of the remainder, and of all the free intelligences whom, in the good pleasure of His goodness, He might thereafter create, those who should thus be eternally confirmed in holiness would be constrained, in the fulness of their wonder and love and joy to fall down before His throne day and night and worship Him, saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." The goodness no less than the power of God in the work of creation, notwithstanding the sin and misery of some, would be eternally established and infinitely glorified.

It cannot be that God made a peccable universe, rather than its opposite, simply in order that He might exhibit Himself as a Redeemer. Redemption could not have become a ground of creation in a sense so unworthy of Him to whom sin is an abominable and a hateful thing; and who hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. Because, as already intimated, though both the possibility and the certainty of sin were involv ed in the very existence of a created moral universe, God could

so overrule the first examples among His creatures of the perversion of their moral freedom, as to confirm forever in holiness the innumerable original company who, among the faithless, faithful stood; and of all the countless intelligences whom, in the fulness of His power and goodness, He might thereafter create; therefore the word went forth out of His mouth, and the universe was. In the progress of the eternal ages, Satan and his angels, instead of contentedly keeping their own appointed principality, proudly left the place of their proper rule and habitationan event, in the moral system of God, of as disastrous tendency, as though, in the material system, some of the stars should madly wander from their fixed spheres, and break up the order and harmony of the natural universe. It was an event not only sure to bring upon these "wandering stars" themselves everlasting destruction, but also in its nature fitted to shock and shake the moral sense and standing of the whole multitude of the heavenly host. It was an event, therefore, which raised two great questions for God to settle; viz: what shall be done with the sinning angels? and-what for the holy? Or, to resolve the two into one-how shall God so set forth the evil angels for an example of the turpitude, guilt, and desert of sin, as not only to glorify His goodness in their eternal punishment, but also to furnish an occasion for such a new and glorious exhibition of His love, as by its effect upon the holy agents primarily, and upon all created intelligences ultimately, shall secure, from the moment "the mystery" is finished, the realization of His first sublime and infinitely benevolent idea-that of making, furnishing, and peopling a material universe, not only the nature but the destiny of whose innumerable population shall be to advance in the knowledge, love, and enjoyment of Himself along the ever-brightening path of a progress bounded, on the side of the creature, only by the necessary limit of a finite nature, and on the side of the Creator, only by His unlimited perfections and His eternal years? The plan of Redemption was intended to meet the end of this great inquiry; and one small solitary globe, our earth, among the countless and mighty orbs of space, has been made of God the theatre for the solution of the momentous problem.

Our purpose is to adduce certain facts, and considerations, which go to prove and to illustrate the truth of such a relation as we have intimated, between the plan of Redemption and the original apostasy in heaven.

(1.) The respited punishment of the angels that sinned. The fall of Satan is and will forever remain an inexplicable moral mystery. He could have had no outward occasion for trans

gression; nor any inward ground for deceiving himself, or for being deceived. He stood amid the "full blaze" of the Creator's glory; and in the perfect fruition of His goodness. While we cannot pronounce upon his specific act of transgression, we may say, in general, that his original sin was a virtual impeachment of the Divine goodness. And the question arises-how was it morally possible that, while in the conscious possession and enjoyment of all the honor and happiness of which he knew his nature to be capable, he could desire more, or question the perfect goodness of God? Here lies the great and insolvable mystery of moral evil. But the moment that sin was conceived within him, God saw with perfect clearness its deadliness, its strength, its guilt, and its desert. He saw the moral impossibility of recovering him to holiness. He therefore condemned him to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. But had He executed the sentence against him speedily, the holy angels would have lost the full lesson of his evil example. They never would have known the radicalness and entireness of his moral change, his unutterable deceit, turpitude, and malice, his immeasurable guilt, and his desert of everlasting punishment. Lucifer had shone among the Angels, like Hesperus among the stars, nor could any, save the all-seeing Eye, discern how low had fallen from heaven that "son of the morning." The foregoing remarks are equally applicable to Satan's associates in iniquity. The prince of a celestial province, having under him legions of the host of heaven, he forthwith drew them into his sin and condemnation. Yet here again the question presses-how was it morally possible, amid the perfect joys and glories of the heavenly state, to persuade them to disbelieve the testimony of their own consciousness; and to follow their revolted prince rather than the Lord their God? While, therefore, Satan and his angels alike deserved to suffer immediately and forever the judg ment of God's fiery indignation, it was the plan and purpose of Infinite Wisdom to respite their punishment for a season, that they might have space and opportunity to develop and disclose their corruption, and thus to demonstrate, in the presence of the holy angels primarily, the "exceeding sinfulness of sin," and its desert of everlasting punishment. The Scriptures teach that God is dealing with the apostate angels and with reprobate men on the same governmental principle.* He is reserving both unto a future judgment. Alike condemned already, they are alike reprieved for a season. But reprobate men God endures with much long-suffering, as vessels of wrath, that they