As accounting for the different means so effectually used in these two cases, it may be said that they were men of different light, and hence their different treatment. Or it may be said that the world required Saul's services at once, and hence his immediate transformation; whereas the world could wait for the reformation of the king. Yet all such reasoning may be entirely beside the mark. It is a mystery profound. With our present limited outlook I think it would be wiser and more reverent to bow our heads in submission, and say, "Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight." It seems to me that Nebuchadnezzar and Saul are typical cases of God's reformatory processes in the next life. Some of these processes may be sudden, and others more prolonged. And their severity or duration does not seem to depend on the depth of iniquity into which a man has sunk. It depends rather on his repentance. Some may require a long and severe discipline, like Nebuchadnezzar; others--possibly some of the greatest transgressors--may yield to the reformatory process without much delay. And it accords with our highest ideas of justice to believe that those who lived up to the light they had, though it were but a dim light, will experience little or no pain, except what may come of the rectifying of mistakes. Even this may be more than balanced by the illumination of new truth. But whether the needed discipline be long or short, and whether it be more or less severe, we believe it will have its due effect. Finally, all sin will be done away, and God will be all in all. The unknown extent of suffering in the next life I think is the basis of warning for men to flee from the wrath to come. When we know that God is angry with sinners every day, we can imagine something of His wrath against sin in the next life, so long as the sin continues. In some cases this wrath may continue long, and the suffering which it entails may be severe. Certainly the divine favor will not rest on any sinner who continues alienated from God. Is not this suffering in the future life sufficient to serve as a warning to sinners now? There is hardly any warning given by preachers at present, except a very general one which amounts almost to nothing. Preachers evidently do not believe in eternal torment. If they did, they would make that the basis of their warning, and never cease. But now that such a warning is almost never uttered, what is there to take its place? I answer, the unknown suffering of the next life, to be continued as long as sin continues.