A False Hope by William L. Wells

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 11.

A False Hope.

By William L. Wells

THERE is scarcely an individual who does not indulge some degree of hope that he will be admitted into a happier world when he leaves this earthly scene. Even the man of the world, the profligate and the debauchee, notwithstanding their consciousness of guilt and the opposition of their affections to the divine law and the duties of the Christian life, frequently buoy themselves up with the vain expectation that an all-merciful Creator will let them off in some way, and not inflict the punishment which they feel they deserve. They cannot think that God will suffer them to sink into an awful perdition. They cling to a hope that he will pity their weaknesses and follies, and receive them, when they die, into the joys of Heaven. Such hopes arise from false notions of the divine character, and of that in which true happiness consists, and from erroneous views of the character of the future state, and the nature of its enjoyments. In order to enjoy happiness in any state, the mind must be imbued with a relish for the society, the contemplations, and employments peculiar to that state, and must feel an ardent desire to participate in its enjoyments. As in the present life there are certain mental endowments necessary for securing substantial happiness, so there are certain moral qualifications indispensably requisite in order to prepare us for relishing the entertainments and employments of the life to come.

All the arrangements of the celestial state would have to be changed; angels and redeemed men would have to be banished from its abodes before an unregenerate soul could find entertainments agreeable to its capacity and desires. Although wicked men were admitted into "mansions of bliss," they would be miserably disappointed. They would feel themselves to be in a situation similar to that of a rude savage, were he to be introduced into an assembly of highly cultivated men and women. They would find nothing congenial to their tastes. They would want to fly away to regions and companions better adapted to their affections.

It is a decree of Heaven—a decree of the intelligent universe, and which, like the law of the Medes and Persians, cannot be changed—that, "without holiness, no man shall see the Lord." "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." "The wages of sin is death." The sinner will get his "wages." He will receive that which he merits—that which is his proper pay. As a man sows, so he must reap. Every man is his own poisoner, his own executioner. If the sinner dies it will be because he deserves to die. He will not have the compassion of the universe in his favor. He will have no one to take his part against God. He will suffer as the culprit pines in the dungeon—as the murderer dies on the scaffold. This is not a question of arbitrary punishment. It is a question of wages. It is a question of traveling on a certain road, which, if you travel long enough, you will necessarily reach the end; and the end is death.—Rev. W. L. Wells.