“That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroy’d,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete: 

“That not a worm is chosen in vain;
That not a moth with vain desire
Is shrivell’d in a pent-up fire,
Or but subserves another’s gain.

* * * * *

“So runs my dream:  but what am I? 
An infant crying in the night: 
An infant crying for the light: 
And with no language but a cry.

* * * * *

“I falter where I firmly trod;
And falling with my weight of cares
Upon the great world’s altar stairs,
That slope through darkness up to God,

“I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope
And gather dust and chaff, and call
To what I feel is Lord of all,
And faintly trust the larger hope.”

With deep sympathy for all who thus feel the weight and pain of the subject, and who hope against hope, we ourselves are compelled to abide in our first faith.  We cannot forget that Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of man, who was perfect love, truth, and life, has neither Himself, nor through His apostles, given us by one word the slightest ground for hoping that any man who leaves this world an enemy to God will ever repent and become a friend of God in the next.  The whole teaching of Scripture is one with what prudence and principle would dictate:—­Believe in Jesus; now or never!

Hear, in conclusion, God’s Word:—­“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life....  He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil....  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

Hebrews ii. 1, 3:—­“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip....  How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.”

WHAT AFTER DEATH?

It would be very difficult, I think, to put a more serious question to ourselves than this, What is to become of its after death?