By The Editor
We are face to face with a terrible crisis in the history of our country. Never was Satanic power so plainly seen as it is today. Never was there such a shaking of the foundations of belief, and never such power put forth by the hosts of darkness to do away with faith in God altogether. There is no fear of God. The doctrine of eternal punishment is denied by thousands of so-called Ministers of the Word of God. Prebendary Carlile, the head of the Church Army, in a sermon said that the “hell of vengeance was contrary to the Sermon on the Mount” He also said, “As the keys of hell were in the pierced hands of burning sympathy, its terrors should be boldly faced.” Others tell us that the “dread of hell is dead,” and that many who used to go to church or chapel to lessen the risk of eternal punishment for themselves were now quite easy in their minds and stayed at home. Hell has lost its terrors for many because men like Farrar and Wilberforce have, by their false teaching, destroyed all belief in such a stern doctrine. But still the prophet voice rings out the awful question to the world, “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isa. 33:1414The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? (Isaiah 33:14)). And still the apostolic admonition has lost none of its power and meaning when he says, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men” (2 Cor. 5:1111Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. (2 Corinthians 5:11)). John the Baptist’s warning voice broke the silence of the wilderness of Judea when he cried, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt. 3:77But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Matthew 3:7)).
In Revelation 19 we get the rebellion against the Son of God trodden down with wrath and irretrievable disaster, and those who headed the rebellion, the Beast and the false prophet, were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Again we read in Revelation 20:15,15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15) “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire.”
These verses are the artillery of God brought to bear on the strongholds of human reason.
Listen! “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.” This is one side, bright and beautiful. Now for the other side: “But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
If you disbelieve these words you impute falsehood to the Bible. Would you like to say that Book was a lie, or a fable? The Book your father and your mother read; the Book that was the solace of their old age. Are you prepared to throw this Book overboard? to put more faith in the daily paper than in what it says? I think not. If you give up the Bible, what have you left? If the Bible is not true, what is true? The testimony of the ages proves the truth of the Bible. External evidences prove its truth, and the internal evidences as to its being the Book of God are incontestible.
You cannot give up the Bible, or if you do, you will be like a captain who cuts himself adrift from his anchor in a storm; or like a man who signs his own death warrant. Then doubt the Word no longer; take it as God has given it, inspired from cover to cover. It is the most wonderful story of power ever told. It is the most marvelous history of love ever written. It is the most terrible book of warning ever known. Be sure of this: its love is real, its judgment is real, its heaven is real, its hell is real, and above all, its Christ, and His salvation, are real. I know it in my soul. A converted infidel on his deathbed said to some of his former associates, “I assure you that if you die as you are, five minutes’ suffering under the vengeance of an angry God will take away all your infidelity. Take warning, and may the Lord have mercy on your souls.”
The infidel Newport, when tossing on his dying bed, turning to the fire in the room, said: “Oh that I could lie on that fire, and burn for a thousand years, if it would but purchase for me the favor of God”; and when expiring he uttered a groan that could scarcely be conceived to be human, saying, “Oh the pangs! the insufferable pangs of hell and damnation! O eternity! eternity! who can paraphrase the words, forever and ever?”
Thomas Paine, the notorious infidel, repented on his deathbed of ever having blasphemed Jesus Christ and the Bible. A lady who was present when Paine died, described the scene thus: “I remember him as he lay, his head near to the door we entered. With glaring eyes, uttering imprecations, apparently in agony of body and mind; his screams could be heard at a great distance. He called on Jesus Christ for mercy and next blasphemed.”
Bishop Gardiner, Lord Chancellor of England in bloody Queen Mary’s reign, was very active in putting Protestants to death. When Latimer and Ridley were to be burned at Oxford, he could not be present himself, so dispatched messengers with instructions to return to him with all speed as soon as the fire was put to the fagots. Although the Duke of Norfolk was his guest that day, he could not sit down to dinner till he received the news that Latimer and Ridley were dead. At four o’clock the wretch was made happy and went to dinner, but lo! while the melt was vet in his mouth, the heavy wrath of God came upon him. A foul leprosy and dropsy fell upon him, his body became distended, his eyes on fire, and his breath was worse than the foulest air. No one could bear being anywhere near him. He suffered in this torture four weeks, during which he spake little but blasphemy, and at last died with curses in his mouth, in terrible and inexpressible torments.
One word in closing, “Flee from the wrath to come.”