an eternal recompense; it is imperatively demanded by the justice and holiness of God. His eye sees how frequently upon earth licentiousness, crime, injustice, stalk openly abroad or flourish in secret. Where is the penalty, the punishment? Religion has its champions, virtue its heroes, faith its martyrs. Where is the reward?
Or are virtue and vice, innocence and guilt, of equal value in the eyes of God? In that case there would no longer be virtue or vice, guilt or merit; everything would be equal and there would no longer be a question of a Supreme Being, who is holy and just!
4. Come, let us draw near to a death-bed. We will suppose that we see stretched upon it a young man who is about to breathe his last. He is at an age when life holds out the brightest promise of enjoyment; he is in the bloom of youth, being scarcely more than twenty years of age. He has grown up good and pious, innocent of evil, a spectacle to men and angels. Now death is approaching; the bystanders are dissolved in tears, the dying man alone is calm; he even smiles, a ray of celestial brightness hovers around his wasted features, he exclaims with his final gasp: "Jesus, I am Thine in life and in death! Jesus, mercy!" Now tell me, can God answer the prayer of this angel in the flesh by dooming him to annihilation?
5. Let us approach another death-bed. Upon it there lies a young man who is about
