Eternity! Eternity!
I tell you a lot of people are going to be fooled on the Day of
Judgment.--BILLY SUNDAY.
Only a man to whom has been given eloquence and a dramatic instinct
can drive home to the average mind the realities of eternity and its
relation to right living in this world and time. Under the title "What
Shall the End Be?" Sunday has widely circulated his message upon this
theme:
"WHAT SHALL THE END BE?"
No book ever came by luck or chance. Every book owes its existence
to some being or beings, and within the range and scope of human
intelligence there are but three things--good, bad and God. All that
originates in intellect; all which the intellect can comprehend, must
come from one of the three. This book, the Bible, could not possibly
be the product of evil, wicked, godless, corrupt, vile men, for it
pronounces the heaviest penalties against sin. Like produces like, and
if bad men were writing the Bible they never would have pronounced
condemnation and punishment against wrong-doing. So that is pushed
aside.
The holy men of old, we are told, spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost. Men do not attribute these beautiful and matchless and
well-arranged sentences to human intelligence alone, but we are told
that men spake as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost.
The only being left, to whom you, or I or any sensible person could
ascribe the origin of the Bible, is God, for here is a book, the
excellence of which rises above other books, like mountains above
molehills--a book whose brilliancy and life-giving power exceed the
accumulated knowledge and combined efforts of men, as the sun exceeds
the lamp, which is but a base imitation of the sun's glory. Here is
a book that tells me where I came from and where I am going, a book
without which I would not know of my origin or destiny, except as I
might glean it from the dim outlines of reason or nature, either or
both of which would be unsatisfactory to me. Here is a book that tells
me what to do and what not to do.
Men Believe in God
Most men believe in God. Now and then you find a man who doesn't, and
he's a fool, for "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God."
Most men have sense. Occasionally you will find a fool, or an infidel,
who doesn't believe in God. Most men believe in a God that will reward
the right and punish the wrong; therefore it is clear what attitude you
ought to assume toward my message tonight, for the message I bring to
you is not from human reason or intelligence, but from God's Book.
"What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" Now
listen, and I will try to help you. Israel's condition was desperate.
Peter told them that if they continued to break God's law, they would
merit his wrath. I can imagine him crying out in the words of Jeremiah:
"What will you do in the swelling of the Jordan?" I hear him cry in the
words of Solomon: "The way of the transgressor is hard." That seems to
have moved him, and I can hear him cry in the words of my text: "What
shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?"
There are those who did obey. Peter knew what their end would
be--blessings here and eternal life hereafter--but he said, "What shall
the end be of them that obey not?"
A man said, "I cannot be a Christian. I cannot obey God." That is not
true. That would make God out a demon and a wretch. God says if you
are not a Christian you will be doomed. If God asked mankind to do
something, and he knew when he asked them that they could not do it,
and he told them he would damn them if they didn't do it, it would make
God out a demon and a wretch, and I will not allow you or any other man
to stand up and insult my God. You can be a Christian if you want to,
and it is your cussedness that you are unwilling to give up that keeps
you away from God.
Supposing I should go on top of a building and say to my little baby
boy, "Fly up to me." If he could talk, he would say, "I can't." And
supposing I would say, "But you can; if you don't, I'll whip you to
death." When I asked him to do it, I knew he couldn't, yet I told him I
would whip him to death if he didn't, and in saying that I would, as an
earthly father, be just as reasonable as God would be if he should ask
you to do something you couldn't do, and though he knew when he asked
you that you couldn't do it, nevertheless would damn you if you didn't
do it.
Don't tell God you can't. Just say you don't want to be a Christian,
that's the way to be a man. Just say, "I don't want to be decent; I
don't want to quit cussing; I don't want to quit booze-fighting; I
don't want to quit lying; I don't want to quit committing adultery.
If I should be a Christian I would have to quit all these things,
and I don't want to do it." Tell God you are not man enough to be a
Christian. Don't try to saddle it off on the Lord. You don't want to do
it, that's all; that's the trouble with you.
At the Cross
A man in a town in Ohio came and handed one of the ministers a letter,
and he said, "I want you to read that when you get home." When the
minister got home he opened it and it read like this:
"I was at the meeting last night, and somehow or other, the words
'What shall the end be?' got hold of me, and troubled me. I went to
bed, but couldn't sleep. I got up and went to my library. I took down
my books on infidelity and searched them through and searched through
the writings of Voltaire, and Darwin, and Spencer, and Strauss, and
Huxley, and Tyndall, and through the lectures of Ingersoll, but none of
them could answer the cry and longing of my heart, and I turn to you.
Is there help? Where will I find it?" And that man found it where every
man ever has, or ever will find it, down at the Cross of Jesus Christ,
and I have been praying God that might be the experience of many a man
and woman in this Tabernacle.
Ever since God saved my soul and sent me out to preach, I have prayed
him to enable me to pronounce two words, and put into those words all
they will mean to you; if they ever become a reality, God pity you. One
word is "Lost," and the other is "Eternity."
Ten thousand years from now we will all be somewhere. Ten thousand
times ten thousand times ten thousand years, the eternity has just
begun. Increase the multiple and you will only increase the truth. If
God should commission a bird to carry this earth, particle by particle,
to yonder planet, making a round trip once in a thousand years, and
if, after the bird had performed that task God should prolong its
life, and it would carry the world back, particle by particle, making
a round trip once in a thousand years, and put everything back as it
was originally, after it had accomplished its task, you would have been
five minutes in eternity; and yet you sit there with just a heart-beat
between you and the judgment of God. I have been praying that God would
enable me to pronounce those two words and put in them all they will
mean to you, that I might startle you from your lethargy. I prayed God,
too, that he might give me some new figure of speech tonight, that he
might impress my mind, that I, in turn, might impress your mind in such
a manner that I could startle you from your indifference and sin, until
you would rush to Jesus.
The Judgment of God
What is your life? A hand's breadth--yes, a hair's breadth--yes, one
single heart-beat, and you are gone, and yet you sit with the judgment
of God hovering over you. "What shall the end be?"
I never met any man or woman in my life who disbelieved in Christianity
but could not be classified under one of these two headings.
First--They who, because of an utter disregard of God's claims upon
their lives, have, by and through that disregard, become poltroons,
marplots or degenerate scoundrels, and have thrown themselves beyond
the pale of God's mercy.
Second--Men and women with splendid, noble and magnificent abilities,
which they have allowed to become absorbed in other matters, and they
do not give to the subjects of religion so much as passing attention.
They have the audacity to claim for themselves an intellectual
superiority to those who believe the Bible, which they sneeringly term
'that superstition.' But, listen! I will challenge you. If you will
bring to religion or to the divinity of Jesus, or the salvation of your
soul, the same honest inquiry you demand of yourself in other matters,
you will know God is God; you will know the Bible is the Word of God,
and you will know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You will know
that you are a sinner on the road to hell, and you will turn from your
sins. But you don't give to religion, you don't demand of yourself,
the same amount of research that you would demand of yourself if you
were going to buy a piece of property, to find out whether or not the
title was perfect. You wouldn't buy it if you didn't know the title was
without a flaw, and yet you will pass the Bible by and claim you have
more sense than the person who does investigate and finds out, accepts
and is saved.
Glad Tidings to All
What is the Gospel that the people ought to obey it? It is good news,
glad tidings of salvation, through Jesus Christ.
Oh, but somebody says, do you call the news of that book that I am on
the road to hell, good news? No, sir; that in itself is not good news,
but since it is the truth, the sooner you find out the better it will
be for you.
Supposing you are wandering, lost in a swamp, and a man would come to
you and say: "You are lost." That wouldn't help you. But supposing the
man said: "You are lost; I am a guide; I know the way out. If you put
yourself in my care, I will lead you back to your home, back to your
loved ones." That would meet your condition.
Now God doesn't tell you that you are lost, and on the road to hell,
and then leave you, but he tells you that you are on the road to hell,
and he says, "I have sent a guide, my Son, to lead you out, and to lead
you back to peace and salvation." That's good news, that God is kind
enough to tell you that you are lost, and on the road to hell, and that
he sends a guide, who, if you will submit, will lead you out of your
condition and lead you to peace and salvation. That's gospel; that's
good news that tells a man that he needn't go to hell unless he wants
to.
When the Israelites were bitten by the serpents in the wilderness,
wasn't it good news for them to know that Moses had raised up a brazen
serpent and bid them all to look and be healed?
When the flood came, wasn't it good news for Noah to know that he would
be saved in the ark?
When the city of Jericho was going to fall, wasn't it good news to
Rahab. She had been kind and had hid two of God's servants who were
being pursued as spies. They were running across the housetops to
get away to the wall to drop down, and Rahab covered them, on top of
her house, with grass and corn, and when the men came they could not
find them. After the men had gone, Rahab gave them cord and lowered
them down the wall, and God said to her, "Because you did that for my
servants, I will save you and your household when I take the city of
Jericho. What I want you to do is to hang a scarlet line out of your
window and I will save all that are under your roof." Wasn't it good
news to her to know that she and all her household would be saved by
hanging a scarlet line out of the window? Never has such news been
published. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins." It was good news, but never has such news
reached the world as that man need not go to hell, for God has provided
redemption for them that will accept of it and be saved.
[Illustration: REV. L. K. PEACOCK, ONE OF MR. SUNDAY'S ASSISTANTS,
PREACHING IN A MACHINE SHOP IN ONE OF THE NOONDAY MEETINGS THAT FORM AN
IMPORTANT PART OF ALL CAMPAIGNS.]
Supposing a man owed you $5,000 and he had nothing to pay it with. You
would seize him and put him in jail, and supposing while there, your
own son would come and say: "Father, how much does he owe you?" "Five
thousand dollars." And your son would pay it and the man would be
released.
Ah, my friends, hear me! We were all mortgaged to God, had nothing with
which to pay, and inflexible justice seized upon us and put us in the
prison of condemnation. God took pity on us. He looked around to find
some one to pay our debts. Jesus Christ stepped forward and said: "I'll
go; I'll become bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh." God gave
man the Mosaic law. Man broke the law.
If a Jew violated the law he was compelled to bring a turtle dove, or
pigeon, or heifer, or bullock to the high priest for a sacrifice, and
the shedding of its blood made atonement for his sins. Once a year the
high priest would kill the sacrifice, putting it on the altar. That
made atonement for the sins of the people during the year. Then they
would put their hand on the head of the scape-goat, and lead it out
into the wilderness.
The Atonement of Christ
Jesus Christ came into the world, born of a woman. When he shed his
blood, he made atonement for our sins. God says, "If you will accept
Jesus Christ as your Saviour, I will put it to your credit as though
you kept the law." And it's Jesus Christ or hell for every man or woman
on God Almighty's dirt. There is no other way whereby you can be saved.
It's good news that you don't have to go to hell, unless you want to.
When the North German Lloyd steamer, the _Elbe_, went down in the
North Sea, years and years ago, only nineteen of her passengers and
crew were saved. Among them was a county commissioner who lived in
Cleveland, Ohio, and when he reached the little English town he sent
a cablegram to his wife, in which he said, "The _Elbe_ is lost; I
am saved." She crumpled that cablegram, ran down the street to her
neighbors, and as she ran she waved it above her head and cried, "He's
saved! He's saved!" That cablegram is framed, and hangs upon the walls
of their beautiful Euclid Avenue home. It was good news to her that he
whom she loved was saved.
Good news I bring you. Good news I bring you, people. You need not go
to hell if you will accept the Christ that I preach to you.
"What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel?" And the
gospel of God is, "Repent or you will go to hell." "What shall the end
be of them that obey not the gospel?" What is the gospel, and what is
it to obey the gospel? We have seen that it is good news; now what is
it to obey? What was it for Israel to obey? Look at the brazen serpent
on the pole. What was it for Noah to obey? Build the ark and get into
it. What was it for Rahab to obey? Hang a scarlet line out of the
window, and God would pass her by when he took the city of Jericho. All
that was obeying. It was believing God's message and obeying.
Ah! I see a man. He walks to the banks of the Seine, in Paris, to end
his life. He walked to the bank four times, but he didn't plunge in.
He filled a cup with poison, three times raised it to his lips, but he
did not drink. He cocked the pistol, put it against his temple. He did
that twice, but he didn't pull the trigger. He heard the story of Jesus
Christ and dropped on his knees, and William Cowper wrote:
"God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty strains."
So that's what you found, is it, Cowper?
I go to Bridgeport, Connecticut. I rap at a humble home and walk into
the presence of Fanny J. Crosby, the blind hymn-writer. She has written
over six thousand hymns. She never saw the light of day, was born
blind, and I say to her, "Oh, Miss Crosby, tell me that I may tell the
people what you have found by trusting in the finished work of Jesus
Christ? You have sat in darkness for ninety-four years; tell me, Miss
Crosby." And that face lights up like a halo of glory; those sightless
eyes flash, and she cries:
"Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!"
"Pass me not, O gentle Saviour,
Hear my humble cry!"
"Jesus keep me near the cross,
There's a precious fountain."
"Once I was blind, but now I can see,
The light of the world is Jesus."
"And I shall see Him, face to face,
And tell the story, Saved by Grace."
I go to Wesley as he walks along the banks of a stream, while the storm
raged, the lightning flashed and the thunder roared. The birds were
driven, in fright, from their refuge in the boughs of the trees. A
little bird took refuge in his coat. Wesley held it tenderly, walked
home, put it in a cage, kept it until morning, carried it out, opened
the door and watched it as it circled around and shot off for its
mountain home. He returned to his house and wrote:
"Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly."
What have you found by trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ?
God's Word
It is said of Napoleon that one day he was riding in review before his
troops, when the horse upon which he sat became unmanageable, seized
the bit in his teeth, dashed down the road and the life of the famous
warrior was in danger. A private, at the risk of his life, leaped out
and seized the runaway horse, while Napoleon, out of gratitude, raised
in the stirrups, saluted and said, "Thank you, captain." The man said,
"Captain of what, sir?" "Captain of my Life Guards, sir," said he.
[Illustration: "CAPTAIN OF MY LIFE GUARDS, SIR"]
The man stepped over to where the Life Guards were in consultation
and they ordered him back into the ranks. He refused to go and issued
orders to the officer by saying, "I am Captain of the Guards." Thinking
him insane, they ordered his arrest and were dragging him away, when
Napoleon rode up and the man said, "I am Captain of the Guards because
the Emperor said so." And Napoleon arose and said, "Yes, Captain of my
Life Guards. Loose him, sir; loose him."
I am a Christian because God says so, and I did what he told me to do,
and I stand on God's Word and if that book goes down, I'll go down with
it. If God goes down, I'll go with him, and if there were any other
kind of God, except that God, I would have been shipwrecked long ago.
Twenty-seven years ago in Chicago I piled all I had, my reputation, my
character, my wife, children, home; I staked my soul, everything I had,
on the God of that Bible, and the Christ of that Bible, and I won.
"What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" Hear
me! There are three incomprehensibilities to me. Don't think there are
only three things I don't know, or don't you think that I think there
are only three things I don't know. I say, there are three things that
I cannot comprehend.
Eternity and Space
First--Eternity; that something away off yonder, somewhere. You will
think it will end. It leads on, on, on and on. I can take a billion,
I can subtract a million; I can take a million or a billion, or a
quadrillion, or a septillion of years from eternity, and I haven't
as much as disturbed its original terms. Minds trained to deal with
intricate problems will go reeling back in their utter inability to
comprehend eternity.
And there is space. When you go out tonight, look up at the moon,
240,000 miles away. Walking forty miles a day, I could reach the moon
in seventeen years, but the moon is one of our near neighbors. Ah, you
saw the sun today, 92,900,000 miles away. I couldn't walk to the sun.
If I could charter a fast train, going fifty miles an hour, it would
take the train two hundred and fifteen years to reach the sun.
In the early morn you will see a star, near the
sun--Mercury--91,000,000 miles away; travels around the sun once in
eighty-eight days, going at the speed of 110,000 miles an hour, as it
swings in its orbit.
Next is Venus; she is beautiful; 160,000,000 miles away, travels around
the sun once in 224 days, going at the rate of 79,000 miles an hour, as
she swings in her orbit.
Then comes the earth, the planet upon which we live, and as you sit
there, this old earth travels around the sun once in 365 days, or one
calendar year, going at the speed of 68,000 miles an hour, and as you
sit there and I stand here, this old planet is swinging in her orbit
68,000 miles an hour, and she is whirling on her axis nineteen miles a
second. By force of gravity we are held from falling into illimitable
space.
Yonder is Mars, 260,000,000 miles away. Travels around the sun once in
687 days, or about two years, going at the speed of 49,000 miles an
hour. Who knows but that it is inhabited by a race unsullied by sin,
untouched by death?
Yonder another, old Jupiter, champion of the skies, sashed and belted
around with vapors of light. Jupiter, 480,000,000 miles away, travels
around the sun once in twelve years, going at the speed of 30,000 miles
an hour. I need something faster than an express train, going fifty
miles an hour, or a cyclone, going one hundred miles an hour. If I
could charter a Pullman palace car and couple it to a ray of light,
which travels at the speed of 192,000 miles a second--if I could attach
my Pullman palace car to a ray of light, I could go to Jupiter and get
back tomorrow morning for breakfast at nine o'clock, but Jupiter is one
of our near neighbors.
Yonder is old Saturn, 885,000,000 miles away. Travels around the sun
once in twenty years, going at the speed of 21,000 miles an hour.
Away yonder, I catch a faint glimmer of another stupendous world,
as it swings in its tireless and prodigious journey. Old Uranus,
1,780,000,000 miles away. Travels around the sun once in eighty-four
years, going at the speed of two hundred and fifty miles an hour.
As the distance of the planets from the sun increases, their velocity
in their orbit correspondingly decreases.
I say is that all? I hurry to Chicago and take the Northwestern. I rush
out to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, I climb into the Yerkes observatory,
and I turn the most ponderous telescope in the world to the skies, and
away out on the frontier of the universe, on the very outer rim of the
world, I catch a faint glimmer of Neptune, 2,790,000,000 miles away.
Travels around the sun once in one hundred and sixty-four years, going
at the speed of two hundred and ten miles an hour. If I could step on
the deck of a battleship and aim a 13-inch gun, and that projectile
will travel 1,500 miles in a minute, it would take it three hundred and
sixty years to reach that planet.
Away out yonder is Alpha Centauri. If I would attach my palace car to
a ray of light and go at the speed of 192,000 miles a second, it would
take me three years to reach that planet. An express train, going
thirty miles an hour, would be 80,000,000 years pulling into Union
depot at Alpha Centauri.
Yonder, the Polar or the North star. Traveling at a rate of speed of
192,000 miles a second, it would take me forty-five years to reach that
planet. And if I would go to the depot and buy a railroad ticket to the
North star, and pay three cents a mile, it would cost me $720,000,000
for railroad fare to go to that planet.
"Oh, God, what is man, that thou art mindful of him?" And the fool, the
fool, the fool hath said in his heart, "There is no God." I'm not an
infidel, because I am no fool. "The Heavens declare the glory of God
and the firmament showeth his handiwork." I don't believe an infidel
ever looked through a telescope or studied astronomy.
"What is man, that thou are mindful of him?" These are days when it
is "Big man, little God." These are days when it is gigantic "I," and
pigmy "God." These are days when it is "Ponderous man, infinitesimal
God."
There are 1,400,000,000 people on earth. You are one of that number,
so am I. None of us amount to much. What do you or I amount to out of
1,400,000,000 people? If I could take an auger and bore a hole in the
top of the sun, I could pour into the sun 1,400,000,000 worlds the
size of the planet upon which we live, and there would be room in the
sun for more. Then think of the world, and God made that world, the
God that you cuss, the God that wants to keep you out of hell, the God
whose Son you have trampled beneath your feet.
If you take 1,400,000,000, multiply it by 1,400,000, multiply that by
1,000,000, multiply that by millions, multiply that by infinity, that's
God. If you take 1,400,000,000, subtract 1,400,000, subtract millions,
subtract, subtract, subtract, subtract on down, that's you. If ever
a man appears like a consummate ass and an idiot, it's when he says
he don't believe in a God or tries to tell God his plan of redemption
don't appeal to him.
God's Infinite Love
And the third: The third is the love of God to a lost and sin-cursed
world and man's indifference to God's love. How he has trampled God's
love beneath his feet, I don't understand. I don't understand why you
have grown gray-haired, and are not a Christian. I don't understand
why you know right from wrong, and still are not a Christian. I don't
understand it. Listen! What is it to obey the Gospel? The Gospel is
good news, and to obey it is to believe in Jesus. What is it not to
obey? What was the end of those who weren't in the ark with Noah? They
found a watery grave. What was the end of those who didn't look at
the brazen serpent in the wilderness? They died. What was the end of
those who were not with Rahab when she hung out the scarlet line? They
perished.
When a man starts on a journey he has one object in view--the end. A
journey is well, if it ends well. We are all on a journey to eternity.
What will be the end? My text doesn't talk about the present. Your
present is, or may be, an enviable position in church, club life, or
commercial life, lodge, politics; your presence may be sought after to
grace every social gathering. God doesn't care about that. What shall
the end be? When all that is gone, when pleasures pass away, and
sorrow and weeping and wailing take their place, what shall the end be?
[Illustration: SNOWBALLING IN JUNE. BILLY SUNDAY AND PARTY ON PIKE'S
PEAK.]
Some people deny that their suffering in the other world will be
eternal fire. Do you think your scoffs can extinguish the flames of
hell? Do you think you can annihilate hell because you don't believe in
it? We have a few people who say, "Matter is non-existent," but that
doesn't do away with the fact that matter is existent, just because we
have some people who haven't sense enough to see it. You say, "I don't
believe there is a hell." Well, there is, whether you believe it or
not. You say, "I don't believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Well,
he is, whether you believe it or not. Some people say, "I don't believe
there is a heaven." There is, whether you believe it or not. You say,
"I don't believe the Bible is the Word of God." Well, it is, and your
disbelief does not change the fact, and the sooner you wake up to that
the better for you. I might say that I don't believe George Washington
ever lived. I never saw him, but it wouldn't do away with the fact that
he did live, and George Washington lies buried on the banks of the
Potomac. You say you don't believe there is a hell, but that doesn't do
away with the fact that there is a hell.
What difference does it make whether the fire in hell is literal, or
the fittest emblem God could employ to describe to us the terrible
punishment? Do you believe the streets of heaven are paved with literal
gold? Do you believe that? When we talk about gold we all have high
and exalted ideas. How do you know but that God said "streets of gold"
in order to convey to us the highest ideal our minds could conceive of
beauty? It doesn't make any difference whether the gold on the streets
in heaven is literal or not. What difference does it make whether the
fire in hell is literal or not? When we talk about fire everybody
shrinks from it. Suppose God used that term as figurative to convey to
you the terror of hell. You are a fool to test the reality of it. It
must be an awful place if God loved us well enough to give Jesus to
keep us out of there. I don't want to go there.
Preparing for Eternity
I said to a fellow one time, "Don't you think that possibly there is a
hell?"
He said, "Well, yes, possibly there may be a hell."
I said, "It's pretty good sense, then, to get ready for the maybe."
Well, just suppose there is a hell. It's good sense to get ready,
then, even for the "maybe." I don't look like a man that would die
very quickly, do I? I have just as good a physique as you ever gazed
at. I wouldn't trade with any man I know. A lot of you fellows are
stronger than I, but I have as good a physique as ever you looked at.
I have been preaching at this pace for fourteen years, and I've stood
it, although I begin to feel myself failing a little bit. But I don't
look like a man who would die quickly, do I? But I may die, and on that
possibility I carry thousands of dollars of life insurance. I don't
believe that any man does right to himself, his wife or his children
if he doesn't provide for them with life insurance, so when he is gone
they will not be thrown upon the charity of the world. And next to
my faith, if I should die tonight, that which would give me the most
comfort would be the knowledge that I have in a safe deposit vault in
Chicago life insurance papers, paid up to date, and my wife could cash
in and she and the babies could listen to the wolves howl for a good
many years. I don't expect to die soon, but I may die, and on that
"may" I carry thousands of dollars in life insurance.
I take a train to go home, I don't expect the train to be wrecked, but
it may be wrecked, and on that "maybe" I carry $10,000 a year in an
accident policy. It may go in the ditch. That's good sense to get ready
for the "maybe." Are you a business man? Do you carry insurance on your
stock? Yes. On the building? Yes. Do you expect it to burn? No, sir.
But it may burn, so you are ready for it. Every ship is compelled, by
law, to carry life-preservers and life-boats equal to the passenger
capacity. They don't expect the ship to sink, but it may sink and they
are ready for the "may." All right. There may be a hell. I'm ready;
where do you get off at? I have you beat any way you can look at it.
Suppose there is no hell? Suppose that when we die that ends it? I
don't believe it does. I believe there is a hell and I believe there is
a heaven, and just the kind of a heaven and hell that book says. But
suppose there is no hell? Suppose death is eternal sleep? I believe the
Bible; I believe its teachings; I have the best of you in this life. I
will live longer, be happier, and have lost nothing by believing and
obeying the Bible, even if there is no hell. But suppose there is a
hell? Then I'm saved and you are the fool. I have you beat again.
"What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" What
will some do? Some will be stoical, some will whimper, some will turn
for human sympathy. Let God answer the question. You would quarrel with
me. "A lake of fire" and "a furnace of fire." "In hell he lifted up
his eyes, being in torment." "Eternal damnation." "The smoke of their
torment ascendeth forever and ever." Let God answer the question. "What
shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?" Will you
say, "God, I didn't have time enough"? "Behold! Now is the accepted
time." Will you say, "God, I had no light?" But "light is come into the
world, and men love darkness rather than light."
I stand on the shores of eternity and cry out, "Eternity! Eternity! How
long, how long art thou?" Back comes the answer, "How long?"
"How long sometimes a day appears and weeks, how long are they?
They move as if the months and years would never pass away;
But months and years are passing by, and soon must all be gone,
Day by day, as the moments fly, eternity comes on.
All these must have an end; eternity has none,
It will always have as long to run as when it first begun."
"What shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel of God?"
When Voltaire, the famous infidel, lay dying, he summoned the physician
and said, "Doctor, I will give you all I have to save my life six
months."
The doctor said, "You can't live six hours."
Then said Voltaire, "I'll go to hell and you'll go with me."
A Leap in the Dark
Hobbes, the famous English infidel, said: "I am taking a leap into the
night."
When King Charles IX, who gave the order for the massacre of St.
Bartholomew's day, when blood ran like water and 130,000 fell dead,
when King Charles lay dying, he cried out, "O God, how will it end?
Blood, blood, rivers of blood. I am lost!" And with a shriek he leaped
into hell.
King Philip of Spain said; "I wish to God I had never lived," and then
in a sober thought he said: "Yes, I wish I had, but that I had lived in
the fear and love of God."
Wesley said, "I shall be satisfied when I awake in His likeness."
Florence A. Foster said, "Mother, the hilltops are covered with angels;
they beckon me homeward; I bid you good-bye."
Frances E. Willard cried, "How beautiful to die and be with God."
Moody cried: "Earth recedes, heaven opens, God is calling me. This is
to be my coronation day."
Going to the World's Fair in Chicago, a special train on the Grand
Trunk, going forty miles an hour, dashed around a curve at Battle
Creek, and headed in on a sidetrack where a freight train stood. The
rear brakeman had forgotten to close the switch and the train rounded
the curve, dashed into the open switch and struck the freight train
loaded with iron, and there was an awful wreck. The cars telescoped
and the flames rushed out. Pinioned in the wreck, with steel girders
bent around her, was a woman who lived in New York. Her name was Mrs.
Van Dusen. She removed her diamond ear-rings, took her gold watch
and chain from about her neck, slipped her rings from her fingers
and handing out her purse gave her husband's address, and then said:
"Gentlemen, stand back! I am a Christian and I will die like a
Christian."
They leaped to their task. They tore like demons to liberate her and
she started to sing,
"My heavenly home is bright and fair.
I'm going to die no more."
Strong men, who had looked into the cannon's mouth, fainted. She cried
out, above the roar of the wind and the shrieks of the dying men, "Oh,
men, don't imperil your lives for me. I am a Christian and I will
die like a Christian! Stand back, men," and then she began to sing,
"Nearer, My God, to Thee."
"The End Thereof"
"There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death." Moses may have made some mistakes, but I want to
tell you Moses never made a mistake when he wrote these words: "Their
rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being the judges."
He never made a mistake when he wrote these words. I say to you, you
are going to live on and on until the constellations of the heavens are
snuffed out. You are going to live on and on until the rocks crumble
into dust through age. You are going to live on and on and on, until
the mountain peaks are incinerated and blown by the breath of God to
the four corners of infinity. "What shall the end be?" Listen! Listen!
I used to live in Pennsylvania and of the many wonderful things for
which this wonderful state has been noted, not the least is the fact
that most always she has had godly men for governors, and one of
the most magnificent examples of godly piety that ever honored this
state was Governor Pollock. When he was governor, a young man, in
a drunken brawl, shot a companion. He was tried and sentenced to be
executed. They circulated a petition, brought it to Harrisburg to the
governor, and the committee that waited upon the governor, among them
some of his own friends, pleaded with him to commute the sentence to
life imprisonment. Governor Pollock listened to their pleadings and
said, "Gentlemen, I can't do it. The law must take its course." Then
the ministers--Catholic and Protestant--brought a petition, and among
the committee was the governor's own pastor. He approached him in
earnestness, put a hand on either shoulder, begged, prayed to God to
give him wisdom to grant the request. Governor Pollock listened to
their petition, tears streamed down his cheeks and he said, "Gentlemen,
I can't do it. I can't; I can't."
At last the boy's mother came. Her eyes were red, her cheeks sunken,
her lips ashen, her hair disheveled, her clothing unkempt, her body
tottering from the loss of food and sleep. Broken-hearted, she reeled,
staggered and dragged herself into the presence of the governor. She
pleaded for her boy. She said, "Oh, governor, let me die. Oh, governor,
let him go; let me behind the bars. Oh, governor, I beg of you to let
my boy go; don't, don't hang him!" And Governor Pollock listened. She
staggered to his side, put her arms around him. He took her arms from
his shoulder, held her at arms' length, looked into her face and said
to her: "Mother, mother, I can't do it, I can't," and he ran from her
presence. She screamed and fell to the floor and they carried her out.
Governor Pollock said to his secretary, "John, if I can't pardon him
I can tell him how to die." He went to the cell, opened God's Word,
prayed, talked of Jesus. Heaven bent near, the angels waited, and then
on lightning wing sped back to glory with the glad tidings that a soul
was born again. And the governor left, wishing him well for the ordeal.
Shortly after he had gone, the prisoner said to the watchman, "Who was
that man that talked and prayed with me?" He said, "Great God, man,
don't you know? That was Governor Pollock." He threw his hands to his
head and cried: "My God! My God! The governor here and I didn't know
it? Why didn't you tell me that was the governor and I would have
thrown my arms about him, buried my fingers in his flesh and would have
said, 'Governor, I'll not let you go unless you pardon me; I'll not
let you go.'" A few days later, when he stood at the scaffold, feet
strapped, hands tied, noose about his neck, black cap and shroud on,
just before the trap was sprung he cried, "My God! The governor there
and I--" He shot down.
You can't stand before God in the Judgment and say, "Jesus, were you
down there in the tabernacle? In my home? In my lodge? Did you want to
save me?" Behold! Behold! A greater than the governor is here. Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, and he waits to be gracious.
"What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?"