* * * * * And we can well believe that the sufferings passed through in time as the result of sin may be so vividly recalled in the next life that they will be a warning against sin to all eternity. When we reflect on the vividness with which we now recall events of twenty, or forty, or sixty years ago, we can well believe that with our quickened memory in eternity, the events that happened in time will stand out in vivid reality for ever. It does not seem far-fetched then to believe that this is the special function of suffering. Such a theory goes far to explain the mystery of pain. It may really be an everlasting warning against sin; and thus the redeemed may be preserved in eternal blessedness. This is a great mystery. The very thought of it excites our wonder, and love, and praise. I have touched here, as I have said, on a great mystery; but it will be observed that I have advanced it only as a possibility. As such, it immensely enlarges our view of the wisdom and love of the divine administration, and that not only in this life, but in the next. It also gives us a faint light on the everlasting mystery of pain. If it should turn out that suffering in its varying form and degree is really necessary as an object lesson for all eternity, we can conceive that when we see it in this light we shall be almost overwhelmed with wonder and adoration. VIII. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. Meagre Details--Good Reasons Why--Extent of the Universe--Future Glory--Sin in Other Worlds--No Revelation--Future Abode of the Righteous--Solid or Ethereal--Impossible Revelations--Present Duties and Interests--Our Limitations--Necessity of Purification--Preaching to the Spirits in Prison--Stages of Progress--The Law of Gradual Development. There is one matter to which I would refer at this stage, because I think the settlement of it on a reasonable basis will be a great aid to many devout minds. It will be supposed by many that if there is an intermediate state of purification, some mention of it, and some details of it, would be given in revelation. To my mind, the comparative silence of revelation in regard to it, counts for almost nothing in our estimate of its probability--I might almost say of its necessity.