Page:A Defence of Revealed Religion.pdf/34

34 Such being the origin, what is the nature of the suffering that follows sin? The suffering resulting from sin is not all deferred until man enters upon the life after death. We see a great deal of it here. It is around us upon every side, for it is inseparable from the sin itself. Look at the Continent of Europe, and see the dreadful consequences of the sinful cherishing of the lust of dominion. France, in her mad ambition drawing the sword for her own aggrandisement, now lies in the dust a feeble and pitiable wreck, and Prussia, intoxicated with success, stands over her, determined at any cost to make her downfall and humiliation complete, while thousands of desolate homes and starving women and children reap the sad fruits of the sinful sowing. Look at the shattered intellects, the ruined characters, the famishing families of the slaves of drink; note the poverty, the pauperism, and the crime resulting from the sin of idleness; behold the countless forms of woe and misery with which the world is oppressed: if you trace them to their origin, you will find that they are the results of sin.

Let us, bearing these things in mind, endeavour to apply them to the consideration of the future lot of the wicked.

Good men go to one home, wicked men to another. Now what must be the natural state of a community of wicked men. Let us consider. At death "the body returns to the ground from whence it came, and the spirit unto God who gave it." To this spiritual