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How did those poor scorched Sodomites run!
Andrew Gray (1634-1656) "Door Unto Everlasting Life"
Poor sinner, are not you as well as others, tumbling
towards the grave? Every moment of life, you come
nearer death.
Your strength is but ashes, your glory but a flower.
You eat today of the meat of birds and animals,
and soon—it may be in two or three months time,
your flesh may be dished out for crawling worms!
Oh, it is but one spurn with God's foot—one touch
with God's finger—and you are gone!
But where, oh where!
You may be wise, and rich, and educated,
and yet damned at last—if not holy.
For all the wicked shall be turned into hell.
No matter how quietly a wicked man may pass out
of this world—unspeakable and intolerable misery
will most certainly overtake him at last.
Sin is the highway to hell. Those who persevere in
sin while they live, cannot escape hell when they die.
Such may read their doom, "They must drink the wine
of God's wrath. It is poured out undiluted into God's
cup of wrath. And they will be tormented with fire
and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels
and the Lamb." Rev. 14:10
Hell is mixed with all stinging ingredients, but
unmixed with any relief or offer of mercy! No
tortures so great as fire, and no fire worse than
that of brimstone.
How did those poor scorched Sodomites run,
howling and yelling, and lamenting their pains,
when God rained hell out of heaven upon them!
How then will poor damned creatures howl and
lament their pains, in that lake of fire and brimstone!
What can be more horrible than that place,
where both soul and body must be crowded into
a fiery dungeon, with torments that can neither
be avoided nor endured! Oh, the bitterness, the
multitude, the everlastingness of their pains!
Oh, eternity, eternity! Who can comprehend it?
After the expiration of millions of years, eternity
will not be one minute less.
Oh, when eternity is added to extremity,
then hell is hell indeed!
The torments of hell are without measure, and
the continuance in these torments is without end.
The damned shall be punished in hell, so long as
there is a God in heaven!
And yet, will you, O man, for the pleasure
of an hour, incur these everlasting pains?
Will you rather lose your soul—than leave your sins?
Will you rather part with eternal life—than with your lusts?
Is sin more sweet—than the wrath of God would be bitter?
Holiness is the only way to happiness.
Grace is the only way to glory.
No holiness—no heaven.
God calls us to follow Him in the way of holiness
to eternal glory. The devil calls us to follow him
in the way of sin to eternal torments.
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