The Bible tells us it will be so. Jesus Christ himself tells us, as you have just seen, that the sinner who continues impenitent must for ever feel the wrath of God; it abideth on him, it will ever abide on him.

Think of these things. Think of the people of Nineveh. They repented at the preaching of Jonah. A greater person than Jonah has preached to you, and is still preaching to you. Suppose he should tell you, that in forty days the place in which you live, yourself, and all the inhabitants, should be utterly destroyed by a tremendous earthquake-how would you feel-what would you do? Would you not repent and beseech God, for the sake of Christ, to forgive you and save you from destruction? Would you not hope, as the people of Nineveh did, that in this way you might obtain mercy?

A more terrible punishment awaits you, if you continue in sin and impenitence. God does not threaten that it shall come upon you at the end of forty days. But suppose it does not. Suppose you live much longer than forty days. Suppose you live forty years, or even twice as long-eighty years. These will soon be gone. They are like days—yes, they are like hours-like moments, when compared with the long, long, never-ending years of eternity. The eighty years of a short life will soon be gone. Then death comes. The soul leaves the body. It goes to judgment. Is it still disobedient and impenitent, then the wrath of God abideth on it for ever.

It is strong language to speak of the anger or the

wrath of God. It does not mean that the wrath of God is like the wrath of a very angry man, who looks furiously, and utters loud and fierce words, and seems like a raging lion, ready to tear in pieces the person with whom he is angry.

God does not feel so. His displeasure against sin is great indeed; but there is nothing in God that is fierce and furious. He is holy, and just, and good in all that he does. Yes, he is good, when he is displeased against sin, and when he inflicts the most dreadful punishment upon the sinner who continues impenitent.

That father is good, who inflicts punishment upon his disobedient child. And if this child goes on in disobedience, and utterly disregards the advice, the reproofs, and the punishments of the parent, and sets his authority at defiance, and refuses to respect and obey him—the father is right in banishing him from his house, and leaving him to meet with the wretchedness and ruin of his own choosing. The father, too, is good in doing so-good and kind to all the rest of the children, and to the family. For how miserable the family would be-how miserable all families would be, if the father, who is the head of the family, is not respected and obeyed; if he exercises no authority over a disobedient, and ungrateful, and rebellious child; if he lets him alone to go on in his disobedience and rebellion, and by his wicked example, probably, lead the other children to become disobedient and rebellious also. He would not be a good and kind father to do so.

In the same way God is good and kind, as well as holy and just, in punishing severely the sinner who holds out against his authority, who will not respect and obey him, who continues ungrateful, rebellious, and impenitent.

If God did not punish such sinners, but permitted them to go on in their wickedness; if the Bible should tell us that the wicked would never be punished at all, but that they would go to heaven after death, and be happy there for ever—what a miserable and wretched world this would soon be! Bad persons would commit all kinds of wickedness, and if they could do it without being found out, they would have nothing to fear in the future world.

Besides, if God, who is so holy, just and good, did not think it right and best to punish the wicked— would it be right for men to do it? Would it be right for parents to punish their disobedient children? Would it be right for a teacher of a school to punish in any way the pupils who would not submit to his rules? Would it be right to have any prisons, and to confine the persons in them who steal, and rob, and do injury to others?

Then what a miserable world we should havewhat unhappiness in families-what disorder in schools-what confusion, violence, and wretchedness every where!

No, my dear children, God is good and kind in punishing the sinner who continues disobedient and impenitent, and in punishing him severely. When it is said that the wrath of God abideth on him, it

means that the displeasure of God against him is so great, that the punishment inflicted on him, and which will show this displeasure, will be dreadful indeed! Dreadful indeed! Somewhat like the effects of wrath or very great anger in a man, who inflicts some terrible pain or suffering upon the person that had made him angry.

Repent of all your sins. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you. Pray to God to lead you to love and obey him. If you do not-if you continue impenitent, then at the day of judgment the Ninevites will rise up and condemn you. Their conduct will show how just God will be in condemning you. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and a greater than Jonah has preached to you, and warned you to flee from the wrath to come.

CHAPTER XV.

The king hears of Jonah's threatenings. He clothes himself in sackcloth. He and the nobles decree that there shall be a general fast.

"So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through

out Nineveh, (by the decree of the king and his nobles,) saying, Let neither man, nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing; let them not feed, nor drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God; yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?"

It seems that some who had heard Jonah, went and told the king what a terrible calamity God had threatened against the city. The king listened to it with deep and fearful attention. Like the people whom he governed, he knew that the punishment would be just. He trembled before the true and living God-the God whose almighty power, as Jonah declared, was to be exercised in the destruction of himself and his people. He arose from his throne, where he was sitting in great splendor, to receive the persons who came unto him. He had little expected to hear from them such an unwelcome message. He laid his robe from him-the rich dress which he wore, and which showed that he was a king, and had great power and authority-and he covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

By leaving his throne, a seat on which only kings sit, and by putting off his robe, the emblem of authority, he meant to humble himself in the sight of God. He meant to acknowledge by this conduct that he was unworthy of sitting on that throne, and of wearing that robe; that he had not acted as a good king,