is a man represented as falling into the most abominable anti-social crime which it is possible to commit. The wretch deserved a hundred deaths for his dastardly midnight murders; conduct more injurious than his to society simply cannot be conceived. Yet he is not only saved from the gallows by the Mother of God herself, but his life is prolonged in order that he may have time to repent and to get his precious soul taken to heaven, a place which, by the way, if it contain many such characters as he, would offer very unpleasant company to moral men.

And let no one reject with impatience the above specimens of Christian teaching on the ground that they are not Christian at all, but abject popish superstitions and inventions. Our next witness to prove that in this matter all Christians agree in vilipending a moral life and conduct, and placing it below a life of crime, provided the latter be terminated by an act of repentance and turning to God in time to cheat the devil, shall be the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, who will not be suspected of any leaning to Romish error. This is what he says:

"Regeneration is an instantaneous work, and justification an instantaneous gift. Man fell in a moment. . . . Shall the devil destroy us in a moment, and Jesus be unable to save us in a moment!"* Again,

"Jesus at Bethesda; " a sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, April 7, 1867.

66

'My dear hearer, whoever thou mayst be, whatever thy past life may have been, if thou wilt trust Christ, thou shalt be saved from all thy sin in a moment; the whole of thy past life shall be blotted out; there shall not remain in God's book so much as a single charge against thy soul, for Christ, who died for thee, shall take thy guilt away, and leave thee without a blot before the face of God." Again, "Ah! my

friend, let me assure you that there is hope for the vilest through the precious blood of Jesus. No man can have gone too far for the long arm of Christ to reach him. Christ delights to save the biggest sinners. . . . O ye despairing sinners, there is no room for despair this side the gates of hell. If you have gone through the foulest kennels of iniquity, no stain can stand out against the power of the cleansing blood. . . . You great sinners shall have no back seats in heaven! There shall be no outer court for you. You great sinners shall have as much love as the best, as much joy as the brightest of saints. You shall be near to Christ; you shall sit with him upon his throne; you shall wear the crown; your fingers shall touch the golden harps; you shall rejoice with the joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.... Thirty years of sin shall be forgiven, and it shall not take thirty minutes to do it in. Fifty, sixty, seventy years of iniquity shall

all, disappear as the morning's hoar-frost disappears before the sun."*

Two things are to be remarked in connection with these quotations: first, that we have here a singular agreement on one particular point, among divines who usually are in complete antagonism. Dr. Pusey, St. Alfonso de' Liguori, and Mr. Spurgeon, may be regarded as representatives of opinions as widely divergent as could well be found among men calling themselves Christians. Yet they agree in the opinion, that no amount or duration of sin can be accounted as a bar to salvation, provided a suitable act of repentance or contrition has been performed on "this side of the gates of hell." They differ at once, if you ask for details as to how the act of contrition or repentance is to be carried out. Mr. Spurgeon bids the sinner turn to Jesus. St. Alfonso tells him to have recourse to the Mother of God; the mere words of which precept the great Baptist minister would probably regard as savouring of blasphemy. But the result is the same. A long life devoted to sin can be blotted out in a moment by a change in the sinner's mind. Secondly, this result has exclusive reference to the next world. By the hypothesis in each case, the life in this world is sup

*

"A Sermon to Open Neglecters and Nominal Followers of Religion;" March 24, 1867.

posed to be as good as over; and it has been a life of iniquity, says Mr. Spurgeon, of obstinacy in wickedness, says St. Alfonso. But paradise is attained, nevertheless. Now, can this doctrine be regarded as one leading to morality in this world? Must it not, rather, have a directly opposite effect? As many as believe it, and how many millions have, are invited, nay, entreated to believe also that it makes absolutely no difference as to their future welfare whether they lead virtuous lives here below, or the most profligate; provided they repent a moment before death. Preachers may insist as they will on the dangers of deferring repentance to the last, on the awful results which will follow if the sinner is suddenly cut off, without having had time to make his peace with God. One part of their teaching destroys the effect of the other part. They admit, they proclaim that repentance, however late, will take the sinner to heaven. Human nature being as it is, we cannot wonder that the result in this world is varied, and on the whole very unsatisfactory. The minute minority of naturally pious and tender minds embrace the cross with passion and ardent love, not unmixed with holy fear; they realize fully that they stand in jeopardy every hour; they work out their salvation in fear and trembling, and not unfrequently are exposed to a strain too severe for their faculties, and

they become, like Pascal, morbidly anxious about their future state, or, like Cowper, they pass the limits of sanity, and fall for a longer or shorter time into utter despair. But these are the small minority of âmes d'élite. The bulk of mankind are commonplace all round, in their virtues and vices equally; and they languidly believe and languidly practice their belief; but so imperfectly and perfunctorily, that it is the universal complaint and lamentation of preachers of all denominations, that the world lieth in wickedness and is dead in its sins. Nothing could be more frank and candid than Mr. Spurgeon's language to his congregation on this head: "You sin, and yet you come to a place of worship, and tremble under the word; you transgress, and you weep and transgress again. . . . You are as religious as the seats you sit upon, but no more; and you are as likely to get to heaven as those seats are, but not one whit more, for you are dead in sin, and death cannot enter heaven."* Bourdaloue, the greatest preacher in the classic age of French pulpit eloquence, said: "Nous sommes Chrétiens, et nous vivons en païens; nous avons une foi de spéculation, et dans la pratique toute notre conduite n'est qu'infidélité. Nous croyons d'une façon, et nous agissons de l'autre Avoir la foi, et vivre en infidèles, voilà ce qui fait le prodige.

....

"A Sermon to Open Neglecters," etc.