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you may put upon the term "sheol," or "hell," in the text, it affords no countenance whatever to the doctrine of endless torments; because the place itself is to be destroyed, utterly destroyed; and God himself has promised that he will ransom from its power.

The great moral lesson taught in the text, and which I desire my hearers to carry away with them, is, that no man can sin with impunity.

The great misfortune is, that while many are willing to preach, and do preach endless torments for others, yet no man has any idea of suffering himself. While he turns others into hell without stint or mercy, he has no notion of being turned in there himself. He has a convenient mode of escape, and though he may sin with a high hand, yet he intends to evade the punishment. I tell you of a truth, my hearers, all such hopes are vain. God has made no cruel or unmerciful denunciations, on the one hand; nor on the other has he made idle threats that he never intends to execute. What he hath spoken, that will he do. And though he smite in the equity of judgment, he is a friend and Father still, and all his punishments designed for good. And though he turn the wicked into the grave, he will redeem them from its power, and raise them to life and to glory at last, and to his great name be all the glory," As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, in the world without end."

SERMON VIII.

BLASPHEMY.

"Verily I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven anto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme; but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness; but is in danger of eternal damnation." Mark iii. 28, 29.

Any person who will examine the reports of the various Lunatic Asylums of our country, for the last twenty years, may find as a prominent cause of insanity," religious melancholy," as it is called. I have not now at hand statistics, so that I can give you the precise numbers; but I state the general fact, at which I have arrived by my former and careful investigations of this subject. The fact is this, "More insanity has been produced by this than by any other cause, not excepting even the demon intemperance itself." I pray you, my hearers, on the very threshhold of this lecture, to pause and reflect one moment upon that startling truth. The religion of Jesus Christ is called the "Glorious gospel of the blessed God," and the first sound of its trumpet was, "Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people." At that glad signal the long bright host,

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that surrounded the throne of the Eternal, and bent in silence to hear the message delivered, plumed their golden wings, and in the new born raptures of their spirits shouted, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will to men.”

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When the Savior preached, the people dered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth." When Phillip went down to Samaria and preached Christ unto them, the raving maniacs heard the word, and were made whole, “and there was great joy in that city." Such was the gospel and its effects in ancient times. But alas! the scene has changed, and we must now understand that this same gospel, which made earth vocal with joy, and caused heaven's high arches to ring with rapturous hosannas, has within the last twenty years, made more maniacs than all the grog shops and tippling houses in the United States! Is it any wonder that there are infidels in the world, so long as the gospel is presented in that light? Or am I to be censured for lifting my voice, to wipe this foul stain from the fair face of the Son of man? But what has all this to do with the text? I answer, it has much to do with it. This "religious melancholy" almost uniformly proceeds from a belief on the part of the individual, that he or she has committed the "unpardonable sin," as it is called; and this doctrine of an "unpardonable sin," which lies at the bottom of so much mischief, is founded exclusively upon the text. The uniform

language of the Bible is, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be like crimson they shall be as wool." And besides this text, (and its parallel in Matt. xii. 31, 32,) I am not aware that there is another passage which is claimed as proof of the doctrine of an unpardonable sin. I pray you, therefore, grant me your attention, while I examine whether this text is good authority for proclaiming a doctrine whose every step is marked with the gloom of despair, and the wild ravings of insanity.

What is the unpardonable sin? Or rather, what is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost? for there is no such language as "unpardonable sin" in the Bible.

Various opinions have prevailed upon this subject. Some have thought, that those who have been converted after the modern fashion, and then fallen back into the belief that their conversion was a delusion, are guilty of this sin. Others suppose they are guilty of it, who deny the influences of the Holy Ghost in modern revivals. But after all, there can scarcely be said to be any general, clear and definite ideas, as to the precise nature of this sin. While it is agreed, that there is a sin that can not, on any account, be pardoned, yet few profess to know precisely in what it consists. It appears to me, however, that there is nothing plainer than the true answer to the question we are now considering.

Look, for one moment, at the connexion of the text, and you cannot fail of seeing the true nature of this offence. It seems that Christ had wrought several notable miracles, the evidence of which was so plain and palpable, that his most bitter enemies could not deny that the miracles were actually performed. But the scribes, in order to evade the force of the argument, thus presented, and prevent the people from believing on him, endeavored to persuade them, that although there was no longer room to doubt, that the miracles were actually performed, yet, they were not wrought by the spirit of God, but by the aid of the devil. They said, therefore," He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of devils casts he out devils." In reply to this the Savior showed, that Satan would not be likely to be destroying his own kingdom. "If a kingdom be divided against itself it cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself it cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself he cannot stand." He then spake to them the language of the text, to which the evangelist adds, "Because they said he hath an unclean spirit." You here see that he spake to them of the sin against the Holy Ghost, "because they said he hath an unclean spirit ;" and this was the precise sin that he intended to rebuke, under the name of the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.

It should be remembered, that this sin, exhibited on the part of the scribes, not merely blindness

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