MANFORD'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. VOL. XXXII. -OCTOBER, 1888.-No. 10. IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. 2 Peter 3: 9, 13. It is one of the objections to Universalism that it teaches a pernicious error, in asserting that "it is never too late too mend." I wish to examine that charge, and see if it is just. And first I ask you to note two facts in connection with that doctrine. The first is that a man who teaches it evidently holds that there is something to be mended. He cannot be charged with holding that there is no need of taking heed to the soul's ways, and repairing its damage. When we hold to this truth we hold as well to the fact that sin is a perpetual inscrutable damage to human nature. It is moral breakage. It is spiritual wreckage; and it works a loss and a harm which must be repaired. That is a plain corollary of the assertion we are discuss ing. So that whether it be a true assertion or not, it evidently involves an affirmation which is true, which the church holds for true, which humanity everywhere holds for true. In other words, if a man holds that it is never too late to mend, he holds by implication to the evil of sin. And the second fact is that he does not by any means imply, in teaching this doctrine, that there is no such thing as a lost opportunity. Because it is held that the door of opportunity to do right is always open, it is not denied that there are other doors of opportunity continually closing behind the soul which rejects them. Although to-morrow's dawn is sure, to-day's rich hours may be wasted, whatever the next seedtime may offer it will not avert the suffering which has come of neglecting this one. Whatever opportunities hereafter may offer of repentance and forgiveness, they will not ward off the penalties which come with the sins of this life; they will not make easy that hard way of transgressors which they tread who pass by the open door of mercy in this earthly career. The waiting welcome is in |