The subject, as thus far unfolded, teaches the following lessons: 

1.  In the first place, it shows that a false theory of the future state will not protect a man from future misery.  For, we have seen that the eternal world, by its very structure and influences, throws a flood of light upon the Divine character, causing it to appear in its ineffable purity and splendor, and compels every creature to stand out in that light.  There is no darkness in which man can hide himself, when he leaves this world of shadows.  A false theory, therefore, respecting God, can no more protect a man from the reality, the actual matter of fact, than a false theory of gravitation will preserve a man from falling from a precipice into a bottomless abyss.  Do you come to us with the theory that every human creature will be happy in another life, and that the doctrine of future misery is false?  We tell you, in reply, that God is holy, beyond dispute or controversy; that He cannot endure the sight of sin; and that in the future world every one of His creatures must see Him precisely as He is, and know Him in the real and eternal qualities of His nature.  The man, therefore, who is full of sin, whose heart is earthly, sensual, selfish, must, when he approaches that pure Presence, find that his theory of future happiness shrivels up like the heavens themselves, before the majesty and glory of God.  He now stands face to face with a Being whose character has never dawned upon him with such a dazzling purity, and to dispute the reality would be like disputing the fierce splendor of the noonday sun.  Theory must give way to fact, and the deluded mortal must submit to its awful force.

In this lies the irresistible power of death, judgment, and eternity, to alter the views of men.  Up to these points they can dispute and argue, because there is no ocular demonstration.  It is possible to debate the question this side of the tomb, because we are none of us face to face with God, and front to front with eternity.  In the days of Noah, before the flood came, there was skepticism, and many theories concerning the threatened deluge.  So long as the sky was clear, and the green earth smiled under the warm sunlight, it was not difficult for the unbeliever to maintain an argument in opposition to the preacher of righteousness.  But when the sky was rent with lightnings, and the earth was scarred with thunder-bolts, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, where was the skepticism? where were the theories? where were the arguments?  When God teaches, “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world?” They then knew as they were known; they stood face to face with the facts.