If we could hear the awful splash!
(James Smith, "Christian Sympathy") LISTEN to audio! Download audio
"Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night for the slain of my people!" Jeremiah 9:1
Must it not rather be said of many of us: "They perish forever without anyone regarding it?"
Souls are daily, hourly perishing, but who regards it?
Hell is filling, but who regards it?
Satan is reaping a tremendous harvest, but who regards it?
Every hour, every minute, every second—souls are sinking into Hell, but who regards it?
Friends, do you ever weep over perishing sinners? Is it not astonishing, that we can go to the house of God and pass multitudes of ungodly, careless creatures that throng our streets, and never shed a tear!
Is it not more astonishing still, that we can preach on the torments of the lost, and the joys of the saved, and see the great mass of the people around us rejecting it, yes, refusing to listen to it—and not weep bitter, bitter tears!
We do not half believe what we preach, or what we hear! We do not half believe the infallible statements of Holy Scripture in reference to the dreadful realities of eternal Hell, or else we would feel deeply, and weep frequently too.
The holy Apostle Paul, speaking of his labors at Ephesus, says, "Remember, that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one day and night with tears!" (Acts 20:31)
Our adorable Lord and Savior, when He came near to Jerusalem just before His death, "He beheld the city, and wept over it!" Oh, to feel as Paul felt! As Jesus felt! If we realized the danger of sinners, and the terrors of Hell as they did—we would weep as they wept!
We should feel for sinners, as if we saw them suspended over the burning lake of Hell, and one after another falling in! We should feel for sinners, as if we could hear the awful splash, as the lost soul takes its terrific plunge into the liquid flaming brimstone!
"Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night for the slain of my people!" Jeremiah 9:1