and of heaven. Thou art righteous O Lord, holy, just, and true, because thou hast judged thus. Who shall not fear thee O Lord, for thou only art holy, just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Hell itself should be but the repeating echo of the songs above. From earth, hell, and heaven, there ought to go up the shout of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, saying-Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. And he that cannot, will not say it, must die accursed. Fellow immortal, you are indicted on the record of heaven as a sinner. With me you have fallen under the curse— the soul that sinneth, it shall die. You are condemned already to eternal suffering-everlasting burnings. God in mercy has given you a short reprieve-the test of a few probationary days,-calls from his throne and his word, Turn ye, for why will ye die. He has surrounded you with scenes and tokens descriptive as Golgotha. And O, throughout the wide earth, there is heard in every sigh of conviction and groan of despair-the soul that sinneth, it shall die. You have sinned, all is lost without repentance. There is mercy, and will ye despise it-the offer of life, and will ye refuse it-peace of conscience, and will ye reject it-a heaven, and will ye scorn it-a hell, and can ye endure it? You may feel safe-may have your excuse, but God charges sin on your soul as free and accountable. You may shield yourself as did Adam, or think you have a corrupt nature which acts in opposition to your disposition and choice. It is not so. It is for what you are and have been -a sinner. And it has come to this-repentance or eternal death. You may excuse yourself, as you do, and say you have a wicked heart, and cannot help it. That heart is yourself, and your excuse is your condemnation. No longer charge to your old heart what you will not regard as your personal guilt and blame. Your old heart as you have regarded it has borne the blame long enough. God addresses you-has condemned you, and calls on you as a being capable of obedience, to repent. But while you live under the impression there is something wrong within you irrespective of your dispositions and choice, that you have a wicked heart but are not to blame for its wickedness, no conviction of personal guilt can reach you. Sinai may roll its awful thunders over you, the rocks of Calvary may rend around you, and bleeding mercy pour its streams of salvation at your feet-ministers may preach and warn, and the church may pray, but until the shield of adamant is dashed or torn away from the heart, and the Holy Spirit sheds in the light and love of divine truth there, you will not feel the burden of guilt and blame, the justice of your condemnation and desert of endless punishment,—will not feel that it is for what you are and have been, a sinner, that you merit the second death. Finally, fellow traveler, you must take your choice for eternity. You may reject the offers of redeeming grace, may glory in your wisdom, intellect and attainments, may despise the poor illiterate creature, "who knows his Bible true, and knows no more." You may be a Jehu for God, and a Cicero for fame, may chase the phantom Hope, and it shall prove as the mirage of the desert. With a heart which has never known peace or submission, you shall lie down to die, a lost and disappointed man. The hour is coming, when the God who is contemned, will lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet. Ah, ye will sooner see the Lord Jesus again in agony, and hear the prayer of Gethsemane from his lips, than he in the day of judgment permit one jot or tittle of the law to fail. And know ye, that eternal death is yet to come, and if ye repent not it shall mete out to your soul and body the just desert of your sufferings, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. And on that fearful monument of eternal death, that column of smoke which goes up like the burning of Sodom, shall be written in flashes of vivid lightning-THE SOUL THAT SINNETH IT SHALL DIE. |