Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

hand upon him, he was not forced into iniquity. But still, he urges, this was no new thing
in her case; she was no longer a maid; if I had been unwilling, she would have been corrupted
by some one else. Yes; and it is written, the Son of Man was ordained to be betrayed, but
woe unto that man by whom He was betrayed. 2141 It must needs be that offences come,
but woe to that man by whom they come. 2142
5. In such a state of things as this, “Shall they fall and not arise? Shall he turn away and
not return?” 2143 Why did the virgin turn shamefully away, though she had heard Christ
her bridegroom saying through the mouth of Jeremiah, “And I said, after she had done all
these things (committed all these fornications, LXX.), turn thou unto me, but she returned
not?” 2144 “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? Why then is not the
health of the daughter of my people recovered?” 2145 You might indeed find many remedies
for evil in Scripture, many medicines to save from destruction and lead to health; the mysteries
of death and resurrection, the sentences of terrible judgment and everlasting punishment;
the doctrines of repentance and of remission of sins; all the countless illustrations of
conversion, the piece of money, the sheep, the son who wasted his substance with harlots,
who was lost and was found, who was dead and alive again. Let us not use these remedies
for ill; by these means let us heal our soul. Bethink you of your last day, for you will surely
not, unlike all other women, live for ever. The distress, the gasping for breath, the hour of
death, the imminent sentence of God, the angels hastening on their way, the soul fearfully
dismayed, and lashed to agony by the consciousness of sin, turning itself piteously to things
of this life and to the inevitable necessity of that long life to be lived elsewhere. Picture to
me, as it rises in your imagination, the conclusion of all human life, when the Son of God
shall come in His glory with His angels, “For he shall come and shall not keep silence;” 2146
when He shall come to judge the quick and dead, to render to every one according to his
work; when that terrible trumpet with its mighty voice shall wake those that have slept
through the ages, and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of
life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. 2147 Remember the
vision of Daniel, and how he brings the judgment before us: “I beheld till the thrones were
cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair
of His head like the pure wool;…and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and
2141 cf. Mark xiv. 21.
2142 cf. Matt. xviii. 7.
2143 Jer. viii. 4.
2144 Jer. iii. 7.
2145 Jer. viii. 22.
2146 Ps. l. 3.
2147 cf. John v. 29.
To a fallen virgin.
453