LECTURE II.
ETERNAL SUFFERING.
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still."—REV. xxii. II.
THE subject announced for our consideration tonight must always be a distasteful one to men possessed of kindly and compassionate feelings.
The fact that men must suffer at all after leaving this world can form no pleasant subject of thought; and the idea that they must suffer for ever is one from which the mind naturally shrinks as from a subject too painful for human contemplation.
But it is not wise to attempt to ignore subjects of this kind. To dwell upon them occasionally may be of use. Were we to be led by our feelings alone, we should confine our attention to themes of a pleasing character—we should think about the beauties, the pleasures, the virtues of the world, and live in a mental atmosphere of perfectness and purity. But this ideal world would not be the real world. Earth has its deformities as well as its beauties, its pains as well as its pleasures, its vices as well as its virtues, and there-
