Did the alarm sound? It certainly did! And what a racket it made! The desk clerk couldn't switch it off fast enough.
There it went again! How annoying it was—there must be a short in the system somewhere. He firmly turned it off again, and at last the unwanted noise was hushed.
Upstairs in the great hotel the fire smoldered on, and the smoke rolled on from room to room in the thick, suffocating silence. Ten hotel guests died that night of smoke inhalation—died quietly, without alarm and without warning.
Would they have said, "Turn the alarm off and let us sleep"? Would they have said, "Oh, that awful noise again! It shouldn't be allowed to scare us so"?
Not likely!
But a greater alarm is sounding, a greater danger is threatening, and too many people would like to hang a DO NOT DISTURB sign on their door, cover their ears against the warning, and go back to sleep.
God's warning cannot be stifled: "Awake, thou that sleepest," and "Escape for thy life!" The world is "hasting unto the coming of the day of God," a day when "the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."
What a terrible, terrible day! But there would be little use in an alarm if there could be no escape. The same writer (Peter) tells us that "the Lord... is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." In "long-suffering" and in love God "gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. There is the perfect way of escape from all the dark judgment ahead. There is no other way. We can cover our ears, hide our heads, try to sleep on, but it is futile! "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" Hebrews 2:33How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; (Hebrews 2:3).
Life and Happiness
We can get life and happiness only in Christ. Apart from Him all is death and misery.