Methought I heard the midnight cry,
Behold the Bridegroom comes!
Methought I was called to the bar

Where souls receive their dooms.
The world was at an end to me,
As if it all did burn:

But lo! there came a voice from heaven,
Which ordered my return.

Lord, I returned at thy command.

What wilt thou have me do?

O let me wholly live to thee,
To whom my life I owe;
Fain would I dedicate to thee

The remnant of my days.

Lord, with my life renew my heart,

That both thy name may praise.

AN APOLOGUE ON FIRE.

I MET my friend and guide again after a little interval, and my thoughts were turned upon the harvest and the fire, especially the tares gathered in bundles to be burned. My guide led me to the consideration of the cure or quenching of fire by fire, and especially the prevention of fire among tares in the eternal world, by the tares of evil habits being gathered in bundles, and burned up in this world. I shall just report his own words, without stop or question, from beginning to end.

THE FIRES OF SATAN, AND THE FIRES OF GOD.

There is a great fire burning in the world. Wickedness. burneth as the fire. Sometimes it is a low, concealed, smouldering fire, like spontaneous combustion in the hold of a cotton ship, kept for a time from bursting forth into a flame. So the fire of sin holds on, unsuspected, in a man's nature, especially a man who has been relying on his own morality, and has never been taught the nature of sin by the Spirit of God. So it burns in his hold, even in the very cargo of his virtues, even while, with all sail set, and marked of the world for the beauty and stateliness of his appearance, he keeps his course across the ocean of life, in full confidence of a harbor. He may keep the hatches down for a season, and may think all is well, but the fire is burning, and even if he should get into port, the moment

the vessel is opened for discharging, it will be all one sheet of flame.

Sometimes it is an open fire, and leaps and rolls and hisses up, like a fierce forest conflagration. So it often burns in great and open sins, with individuals and communities. The sins of Sodom were a flaming fire more terrible and devouring than the storms of burning brimstone. The fire unseen, or unacknowledged, is infinitely worse than that which is seen and guarded against. The sins of the cities buried beneath the lava of Vesuvius were worse than the fires of the burning mountain, though pouring down in torrents. Open or concealed, in single souls, or families, or cities, or kingdoms, or conflicting armies, wickedness burneth as the fire; it burneth the world over, this world.

But there is a greater fire coming; the day when all that do wickedly shall be burned up like chaff with fire unquenchable. Now there is a restraint even upon the fire of sin; then there will be none. God will let it burn on, and take its own way without interruption. And not only so, but the great globe itself, and all that is therein, shall be burned up; and then all minor fires that remain burning, when all that is material shall have been consumed, shall be themselves, with death and hell, cast into the lake of fire that burneth everlastingly. Happy is he in whom, or about whom, this great day of fire shall find nothing but what is material to consume; happy he, in whom the fire of the Great Refiner beforehand has burned up all that was sinful, and left an immortality of holiness and blessedness. Happy the soul in Christ, at that day of doom. In that fire, everything will be burned up that can be, and if anything outlasts that fire, and keeps on burning, it will be just only a sinful soul, just the fire unquenchable. All the smoke you will see when the universe is burned up, and the elements themselves shall have melted with flaming heat, will be the smoke of the bottomless pit, a combustion of

unquenchable wickedness, amidst the blackness of darkness forever.

There are different kinds of fire; and one kind may be but the emblem of another. There is the fire of Divine love, a fire of ecstatic life and enjoyment in the soul, a fire that burns up sin, removes the dross, and shows God's image. Material fire is an emblem of that, for it flames up towards heaven; it seeks the sun, and subdues all things to itself, and purifies all things. But there is also the fire of selfishness and sinful passion, and of that likewise material fire is an emblem, painful, overmastering, consuming all the forms of material life, beauty and happiness, reducing the costliest things to ashes, producing in an animated frame intolerable agony. There is, both in a material and spiritual point of view, a fire of refinement and purification, and a fire of wrath and punishment.

Now it makes a great difference whether a man sets the fire himself, or God sets it; and also, whether a man sets the fire himself, or leaves his heaps of dry chaff in the way to catch it. If a man leaves the chaff and stubble of his sins within and around him, his own breath as fire shall in due time devour him. But if a man will set fire to his own sins, instead of cherishing the fire of sin, and gathering materials for it, he shall save himself by fire from the fire. If we will judge and condemn ourselves, Paul says we shall not be condemned. And Christ says, If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee; or if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is better to enter into life by so doing, than to go into hellfire with two hands or two eyes, prepared for that fire in the service of sin. A man may either keep kindling and cherishing the fires of sin in his being, or he may, by God's grace, kindle a fire against sin itself, and may burn up his own sins. If he will set this fire himself, he may be saved; there shall be no fire for him hereafter; but if he leaves his sins to catch fire from abroad, or leaves them

to be burned up by God's avenging fire, he is lost, and nothing can save him. Man sets the fire of sin, God only sets the fire against sin; man may destroy himself, God only can save him.

And so it makes a great difference whether God sets the fire from within or from without; and whether he sets the fire as a consumer or an avenger, to burn up sin, or to punish it; whether he acts as a refiner and purifier, or a just and holy judge, executing the law against the sinner. If God sets the fire from within, it is the fire of his grace, and it burns up the sin, but spares the sinner, and saves him from the fire unquenchable. If God sets the fire from without, he does it while in this world, oftentimes to make the sinner see and feel the terribleness of the fire in his own soul, and the necessity of having it extinguished. I have set him on fire round about, says God, describing these merciful methods of his providence, yet he knew it not; yea, I have burned him, yet he laid it not to heart. And if this state of things continues, if a man thus hardens himself in sin and heedlessness, even under God's correction, then that must take place which God speaks in regard to such persons, that under all their glory and pride, he will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. And the Light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame, and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers, and the glory of his forest and his fruitful field, both soul and body.

So that it makes also an infinite difference whether God sets his fire in this world or the next. If in this world, and it is the fire of his providence, it may bring the sinner to repentance, and save him from the fire everlasting; if it is the fire of his grace set within the soul, it will save the sinner from every other fire, and render every other either harmless or wholesome. But if God's fire be resisted, and the experience of it reserved to the world to come, there it can no longer be a fire of grace, but only of