I am thinking of a Sunday afternoon, when as a boy, I robbed a robin’s nest and went off to Sunday school with the eggs in my pocket.
I was very unhappy, for I knew I had done wrong. The teacher spoke that afternoon about Achan, who hid the piece of stolen gold in his tent, and then he made us all repeat the text, “Be sure your sin will find you out.”
I was very miserable, and all the following night I woke up in starts, imagining I was being pursued by an angel with a drawn sword in his hand. That sleepless night, haunted by the remembrance of my sin, was as a foretaste of hell to me. I never forgot it, nor could I ever rest again until I was converted to the Lord.
What it must be to bear the pangs of an accusing conscience forever, with the remembrance of sins and their remorse in hell, only the lost know, but I had what I believe to be a foretaste of it that night. Sins are often sweet to the taste when committed, but O, the bitter, bitter end. Christ died to save you from their doom, and to deliver you from their practice.
ML 06/30/1946