stamped  on  them,  or  cease  to  be  self-conscious  ever  for  good  or
for  evil.  This  life  of  ours  now,  then,  seems  to  us  the  crisis  of
our  everlasting  destiny.  We  have  before  us  life  and  death ;
and  while  God  ever  invites  every  man  to  choose  the  good,  the
immutability  of  his  counsel  (which  you  justly  assert)  forbids
Him  to  change  the  laws  against  which  we  may  dash  ourselves
into  every  wreck  of  self-conscious  misery,  if  we  determine  to
create  for  ourselves  evil.  Truly  with  Him  is  no  variableness.
For  my  own  part,  seeing  that  the  issue  is  so  tremendous,  and
that  it  turns  upon  a  heart  and  life  cleansed  by  faith*,  rather
than  upon  doubtful  knowledge,  I  had  rather  take  hold  of  the
inheritance  which  God  has  promised,  than  speculate  about  the
manner  of  its  coming  about.  You  may  enlarge  the  Christian
parables,  of  the  Judgment,  and  the  Thrones,  and  the  Books,
and  the  instruments  of  music,  and  the  palm-branches,  into
whatever  vision  you  think  more  spiritual,  of  retribution,  and  of
memory,  and  of  remorse  or  good  conscience,  and  of  communion
with  the  Father  of  our  spirits,  and  of  triumph  among  all  who
have  lived  purely  and  acted  nobly  in  every  age  and  country.
Still  you  must  leave  in  reality  of  meaning  that  God  has  ap-
pointed to  all  men  once  to  die,  and  after  death  the  judgment.
