Roughly, there are two classes of men to be recognized. First there are
those who have sat under the Gospel for years, but who have not yielded
to its claims. The question is, Will they ever yield, even if they are
favored with another opportunity? Will not the habit of their life
culminate in an eternal refusal?
Some think it will. My old minister used to say that it is the nature of
evil to perpetuate itself. Hence it was argued that grace refused here
will be always refused, even though it were offered. It was argued that
the increased evil character which will come to a wicked man on entering
the next life, together with the evil influences and surroundings of
that life, will so absolutely steel him against all good that he will
inevitably go on from bad to worse for ever. Hence the eternity of
suffering.
To my mind, all this is only theory. We really know very little of the
next life. The influences that may be used for reformation may really be
overpowering. Just think how it has fared with this world of ours since
the introduction of evil. Has evil perpetuated itself? Or will it
perpetuate itself? No! the very opposite has been the case, and will be
the case. A scheme of redemption above all human thought has been
enacted here, by which the world has in part regained the innocence that
if lost, and is destined to regain it fully.
No one could have foreseen this. We can imagine some sinless world,
cognizant of the evil that had entered here, forecasting our eternal
doom. They might reason that evil would perpetuate itself, and that
therefore there could be nothing in store for us but eternal sin and
suffering. They did not know the provision that was to be made for our
redemption; hence their conclusion would be all wrong.