What shall the swearer say?

(James Meikle, "The Traveler" June 15, 1758) LISTEN to audio! Download audio

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"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain." Exodus 20:7

How justly will God, the righteous Judge, repay the imprecations into the bosoms of these blasphemers!

They sin in sport-but God hears in earnest, and will punish in zeal. They call on God profanely in their words; and God hears, and will answer them in wrath!

They swear, and forget-but God has sworn that He will remember. That which they think adds vigor to their words-shall indeed add anguish to their grief, and fierceness to their torments!

What shall the swearer say, when tossing on the fiery billows, shrieking under consummate despair! "O miserable state of intolerable torments, which I must endure! How shall I spend this eternity of pain! It was nothing to me in time to hear others curse and blaspheme-and to join in the infernal dialect myself! And now I am encircled with unceasing blasphemies, from all the legions of demons, from all the millions of miserable sinners, suffering under infinite vengeance! And I mingle in the uproar, and join in the terrible tumult against the throne of God, although dreadfully tortured in my rebellion. Then, curses accented every sentence; now, every sentence is one continued curse! I thought God was altogether such a one as myself-and that He would never remember my swearings, which I never minded; nor call me to account for committing what I made no account of. Damn me! damn me! was always on my tongue-and now I am damned forever! The oaths and curses which I sowed in time, have now sprung up into bitter bewailings, and eternal blasphemings! As I took pleasure in cursing, so it is come unto me-but with inexpressible pain! O eternity, eternity, how long!"

"They cursed the God of Heaven for their pains and sores. But they did not turn from their evil ways." Revelation 16:11. This is, indeed, the lamentable end of profane swearers, who shall confess the equity of God in their torments!

But, as the wicked shall be repaid according to their ways, so shall the righteous be in theirs. All their imperfect . . .
 attainments,
 longings,
 wrestlings,
 hopes,
 desires,
 prayers,
 meditations,
 tears,
 godly sorrows,
 spiritual joys,
and the seeds of every other grace-shall come to a wondrous conclusion at last. Now they serve God with weakness-but then they shall enjoy Him with a vigorous immortality! They sow in tears, and go weeping heavenward-but shall possess Him in a triumphant state, where sorrow and sighing shall forever flee away!