What, however, must be said of those who in life had light and knowledge of GOD and of His will, and yet hardened themselves against GOD; who were free, and in the exercise of their freedom rejected GOD? Of these unhappy souls, if there is no yielding of their will to GOD in the Intermediate Life, if, and so far as, they have absolutely made themselves by the fixedness of their choice incapable of yielding, if after death they still hate GOD and set the whole force of their determination against Him,--one can only fear that even GOD Himself cannot help them. On the supposition that the prerogative of free will, once for all given to man, must be respected by GOD, we are driven to the belief that GOD cannot force the will. It is not that GOD changes towards them. It is not necessary to suppose that He is even punishing them. He may still be in Himself all that He is to all, full of love towards them, full of pity, full of mercy. "His mercy is over all His works." He can no more cease to be a Father to every man than He can cease to be GOD. He hates nothing that He has made. But if the very knowledge and thought of GOD'S longsuffering patience serves only to harden and to exasperate, if it only stirs in the lost soul deeper pangs of inexorable hatred, then,--man being man and GOD being GOD,--what can GOD do? It is they who reject GOD, not GOD Who is rejecting them. It is they who spurn Him, not He Who chastises them. He does not banish them from His Presence: it is they who banish Him from their presence. And if this defiance against GOD survives and lasts, if, as ages pass, it becomes more resolutely inveterate and set, what power can stop it, what love can soften it? And if it is never to be pacified, and never yields, what shall hinder it from going on up to and beyond the Day of Judgment? It may be said that such utter determination is a moral impossibility, that no will of man could finally defy and resist the love of GOD. If that be so, well! But on the assumption that it is not impossible, the inference which has been drawn is inevitable. But there are others who in life have never heard of Christ, the millions of heathen in all ages and all lands since the world began, of whom it may truly be said that they never had a chance of salvation. To these may be added many who have indeed fallen in with Christianity, but with a Christianity of such a sort, presented to them in such a way, in such a form, and under such circumstances as almost naturally to create in their minds a really honest doubt and distrust of it. What shall be said of these honest unbelievers, and, scarcely through their own fault, blind? As to these, let us ask whether the doctrine of the Intermediate State can help to give us some better hope.