Download PDF - Free Methodist Church

and they have no rest day nor night"—Eev. xiv. 11. Sin is what God hates,and aU who have rejected the greatremedy, Jesus Christ, the Savionr ofmankind, must suffer the "vengeanceof eternal fire." "And the devil thatdeceived them was cast into the lake offire and brimstone, where the beast andthe false prophet are and shaU be tormentedday and night forever andever."—Bev. xx. 10. How fearful thethought, to be shut in forever with aUthe devils and lost spirits; to be tormentedwith these infernal fiends; tohave these for everlasting associates,and to hear the curses and shrieks ofthe damned. The horror, the groans,the fearful sights—everything that iscalculated to excite terror and dread—and then the most fearful of all to hearfhe word eternity echoing and ringingthrough the chambers of hell. If itwas to last only a miUion of years, thiswould be a great relief, but 0 etemity Ieternity 1 the poor lost spirit falls backin anguish and despair, and shrieks forththese words, "Ikhewmy dutybutldidit not."" "When the Son of man shaU comein His glory, and aU the holy angelswith Him, then shaU He sit npon thethrone of his glory: And before HimshaU be gathered aU nations; and heshaU separate them one. from another,as a shepherd divideth his sheep fromthe goats: And He shall set the sheepon His right hand, but the goats on theleit. Then shaU the King say nntothem on His right hand: Come, yeblessed of my Father, inherit the kingdomprepared fer you from the foundationof the world. Then shall he sayalso unto them on the left hand: Departfrom me, ye cursed, into everlastingfire, prepared for the de-vU and hisangels." May God help ns to understandwhat it means to fear not " menwho can only MU the body, and afterthat have no more that they can do.But fear Him, which after he hathHUed, hath power to cast into hell;yea, I say unto you, fear Him."The great day of " Christ's coming "is rapidly approaching. Every thingTHE BUFPEBINQB OP THE LOST. 41indicates this. The churches are crying"peace and safety." Multitudes inthe churches are taking their ease, sleepingand slumbering, while a few hereand there are struggling to keep the lifeof God in their souls. Jesus himselfdeclares that as iniqnity aboundeth thelove of many shaU wax cold. "We areUving in an age of dead formality andworldly conformity. The words of theApostle are UteraUy fulfilled in these^days: " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly,that in the latter times semeshaU depart from the faith, giving heedto seducing spirits and doctrines ofde-rils." God has a people in theselast days that dare lift npthe standard,and they count not their own lives dearunto them so that they may win ChristThey have partaken to a certain extentofthe spirit ofthe martyrs, and theyare preparing for the coming of theirLord and King. The Spirit and theWord declare that He ia coming quickly.May we take heed to our ways;"and let us consider one another to*provoke unto love and to good works:Not forsaking the assembling of our- .selves together, as the manner of someis; but exhorting one another : and somuch the more, as ye see the day approaching."—^Heb.X 24, 25.0 • •How IT IS.—The preaching of thecress of Christ and of God's commands,fuUy and fearlessly declared, moves thedepth of heU, and raises the seum on thechurch kettle, until it mns over, andquenches the little sacred flre that remainson earth. Thus Uttle can be doneamong the people, only to have a shamrevival, conducted on a fashionable basis;with blank cartridges flt)m thepulpit, pretty prayers in the altar, andsham penitence aronn(J»it. These resultin spurious conversions, flUing thechurch with deceived souls and hypocrites,who are thus Ifed, through theChurch, down to heU.—T. F. Stuart.Faith is the mother-grace, the ro«tgracOjthe grace that has aU others inQie bowels of it, and that from whichaU others Qow.—Bunyan.