Alas! men now sin with impunity and boldness—but when I
dart my thoughts beyond the grave, and see the unrepentant sinning multitude
gathered before the dreadful bar, the angry tribunal—of the vindictive
Judge—how will they then look?
Have I ever seen one affronted, and put to the blush? One
sentenced to infamy, or one condemned to death? All this is but like modesty
blushing—in comparison of the confusion of guilt, and the eternal gloom of
horror—which shall take fast hold on the unrepentant, when the incensed
Judge pronounces their sentence in these killing words, "Depart from Me,
you evildoers!" Where will they hide their guilty heads, and where
conceal their shame? They will not be able to cover their condemnation with
a smiling countenance, as they now cover their sin which causes it. How will
the ground shake, and the earth quake beneath the trembling multitude! What
fearful countenances! What remorseful looks! What rolling eyes! What
frightful gestures! What lamentable howlings! What doleful bewailings! What
preposterous complaints! What despairing expressions! What agonizing groans!
What intolerable horror! What gnawing anguish! What stabbings of guilt! What
roarings of awakened conscience! What horrible blasphemies against the
divine Judge himself—shall they be subject to, and employed in, in that
tremendous day! How will they call to the hills to hide them, and run to be
lost in the ruins of the tumbling rocks—but in vain!
But from whence will these specters come, these trembling
ones be gathered? From another world? Ah! No! They are these mirthful and
proud ones, who now walk the round of life, jesting and unconcerned! But
they shall then be overwhelmed, and that forever, with a grief too vast for
language to express, too tremendous and unintelligible for conception to
apprehend; but such as every person, in the time of hope, the place of
repentance, and day of grace, should study to escape. For even Bedlam,
compared to them, is a house of sober-witted men!
"Who knows the power of God's wrath?" Who know it but the
damned? And yet they know it not, for an eternity of torment is continually
teaching them the agonizing lesson! Who dares to know it—but the bold, the
blind, the headstrong sinner, who never puts the question to himself, which
concerns him most, and might awaken him—"Who of us can dwell with devouring
fire? Who can dwell with everlasting burnings? How shall we escape the wrath
to come?"