When our Lord says of the final issue of His judgment, “These” (speaking of the wicked) “shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal,” I believe He perfectly understood the subject, and meant what He said. When Paul also, writing of himself and his fellow-Apostles, said “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men,” I believe he meant—they persuaded men “to flee from the wrath to come,” and take shelter in “the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb. xiii. 20); according to the words, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God who hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense saith the Lord” (Heb. x. 30, 31; and 2 Thess. ii. 6–9). I have been a fond reader of Holy Scripture from my youth, and have from time to time studied much that has been written in support of its genuineness and authenticity; but now in the retrospect of the past I find no evidence for the general truth of that Scripture at all to compare with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ—“If any man will do His (the Father’s) will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself” (John vii. 17). “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant” (Ps. xxv. 14). As it is all-important to know that the foundations are sure, and will stand in the day of trial, I have set down in these pages the train of thought which has proved most confirming to my own faith, and trust that some of those who love the Truth as it is in Jesus may find it helpful to themselves. We live in eventful times. There is much abroad in the world to excite alarm. When Atheism and Infidelity are making strenuous efforts to extend their withering influence; when Roman Catholicism and a kindred ritualism are invading our country, there is abundant need to stick to the Law and the Testimony, lest the curtains of darkness should be again spread over it. But notwithstanding that the picture may be somewhat gloomy, it is by no means all on one side; by various instrumentalities the Gospel is being largely and successfully proclaimed, and the message of salvation _through Christ alone_ is now carried to every class, and almost from house to house, in a manner never before witnessed; and the lowest haunts of vice and misery are at least opened to the town missionary, the Bible-woman, or the evangelist, where but recently the police could not venture single-handed; and many are the brands plucked from the burning, so that among these, as well as among the social circles above them, a rich and powerful wave of Gospel blessing is rolling over the land.