Speedy Retribution

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 21, 1882

Speedy Retribution.

MEN are sometimes taken at their word. God sometimes visits blasphemy and irreverence with speedy punishment, in order that it may be seen that judgment, although delayed, is sure. The following incident is given by a writer in a recent number of the Christian at Work:—

“There was a protracted religious meeting being held in the Methodist Episcopal church near me. Many remarkable conversions took place, and much good was done. As was not at all strange, the ‘revival’ was the subject of conversation in stores and shops, and wherever men congregated in the village. In the shoe shop, one day, several were standing about the store, and were talking of the ‘meeting’ and its successes.

“Presently a man who was at work volunteered to say: ‘It’s all humbug. I don’t believe anything of it. I don’t believe there’s any truth in religion, anyhow. While man lives make him as comfortable as you can; let him have all the enjoyment possible; but when he dies, that’s the end of him; we don’t know anything more about him—no more than about the beasts.’

“‘Then,’ said one of the company, ‘you might as well die with the beasts.’

“The answer came boldly, though it shocked those who heard it: ‘It makes no difference to me. I’d as leave die that way as any other.’

“The conversation was not pursued, though the skeptic (who was a comparative stranger in the place), had completely made known his religious sentiments. Mark the sequel.

“In less than two weeks he went with the team for a load of coal. During the day a violent snow-storm came on, and the snow gathered very fast. As night approached it was supposed that he would leave his load and come home. But darkness came; bed-time came; and then it was supposed that he had ‘put up’ along the road; and his family retired. Early in the morning the loaded wagon was seen near the house, and, on further investigation, the horses were found in the stable, but untied and yet harnessed. The man lay outside, in the cow-yard, yet alive, though he died before he left the yard, in his neighbor’s arms.

“I only relate the facts as they occurred. Let every one draw his own conclusions.”