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When the minister got through with his dressing he went out to make his calls. He first called on an old man who was suffering greatly from rheumatism and was unable to use his limbs. But he found him patient and even cheerful. Then he called on a young man who was wasting away with consumption and expecting soon to die. But he had a hope in Christ. He could sing:

"The world recedes, it disappears,
Heaven opens on my eyes, my ears
With sounds seraphic ring.

Lend, lend your wings, I mount, I fly—
O grave, where is thy victory!

O Death, where is thy sting!"

Then he called on an old grandmother, who lived all by herself in a miserable old garret. As he was going upstairs into her forlorn chamber he heard her cheerful voice singing: "There is a land of pure delight, Where saints immortal reign; Eternal day excludes the night, And pleasures banish pain."

Lying on her hard pallet, by her side were a crust of bread and a cup of cold water, and an open Bible with the passage marked: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has not where to lay his head." And she said, "O blessed Bible!

It is as if a shining angel talked to me out of heaven. My poor chamber seems heaven's gate, and I am happy-so happy!" The last call he made was at a home of sorrowing love. A young mother sat by the coffin of her firstborn child. Her cheeks were stained with tears. She had been pressing her lips to that cold forehead and twining her fingers in that silken hair. But to his surprise she was cheerful. She said, "My Saviour said, 'Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven!' My babe has gone to heaven; my lamb is in the Shepherd's bosom."

The minister went home at the close of that afternoon feeling very thankful for all that he had seen, and deeply impressed with the precious comforting of Christ. In the evening he was sitting in his easy-chair before the fire, and his wife sat near him, busy with her needle. In thinking of the visits he had made to those different homes of affliction he could not help saying, "What a wonderful thing the grace of God is! How much it can do! Nothing is too hard for it. Wonderful! wonderful! It can do all things."

"Yes, it is wonderful indeed," said his little wife; "and yet there is one thing which the grace of God does not seem to have power to do."

"And pray what can that be?" asked her husband.

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Why, it does not seem to have power to control a minister's temper when he finds that his shirt button is gone." In a moment the minister's conscience smote him. He saw what a sin he had committed in giving way to an angry temper, and how that anger had interfered with the happiness of his family. With his eyes full of tears he said, "Forgive me, my dear wife, for the wrong I have done. I will ask God that I may never give way to such an angry temper again."

XXII.

IS THERE A HELL?

Is there a hell, or is all that we are told about it the creation of superstitious fears? If we trace the history of this belief we shall find that it has not been entertained by superstitious people alone, but by the wisest and best men of every age-heathens as well as Jews and Christians-and this fact ought of itself shake the unbelief of the most intelligent skeptic. If the wisest and best men of every age, with all their differences of opinion upon other points, have unanimously agreed in the belief of a future state of retribution, this fact claims every man's respectful attention, and no man who wishes to have credit for good common sense will say that the belief in a hell is nothing more than a superstition or an invention of priestcraft for making an easy livelihood. The question, Is there a hell? resolves itself into this: Is there a moral governor of the world? Is there a moral law? Is there such a thing as sin?

For if there be, then there is such a thing as punishment for sin, and that punishment, whatever form it may assume, may be designated hell.

But are not all men punished for their sins in this life? We see every day that there is not for all sin such a reckoning in this world as meets the claims of righteousness and justice. There are many whose evil doings pass undetected and unpunished, whom neither the laws of man nor the laws of nature can reach. Thousands of the greatest criminals have gone to their graves in peace. Death had no revenging terrors, no retributive remorse for them. And when we take a deliberate view and see how the righteous often suffer and the wicked flourish, we are naturally led to exclaim, "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old; yea, are mighty in power? Is there no reward for the righteous? Is there no punishment for the workers of iniquity? Is there no God that judgeth on the earth?” And, indeed, were there no retributions beyond the limits of this present life we should be necessarily obliged to admit one or the other of the following conclusions: Either that no moral governor of the world exists, or that justice and judgment are not the habitation of his throne.

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