A TERRIBLE EXAMPLE by G. B. Thompson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Nov 7, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 45.

A TERRIBLE EXAMPLE.

By G. B. Thompson

SIN is a terrible thing. On every hand we see our fellow-mortals enslaved by it, bound with shackles no human power can break. But the blessed Jesus is by their side, ready to deliver them as He did the lunatic in the country of the Gadarenes. Mark 5: 1-20. Pardon and deliverance are offered on condition that we repent.

But to the gentle entreaty of the blessed Gospel of peace many are turning a deaf ear. The pleasures of sin for a season look desirable, and the day of repentance is put off. The road to destruction is crowded; many walk therein.

What a fearful blunder! With vain regrets it will be deplored at last. The only thing to which the unrepentant sinner can look forward is death, eternal death. Listen! "The wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:23. The "wages" of sin! Have you ever worked for wages? Wages is the reward of labor; and when pay day comes, we are glad. See the employees of a factory, a mill, or a railroad, on pay day; they are generally cheerful when they receive their check for the week or the month. The writer was once for a short time employed in railroading, and can testify that with the rest of the employees he was always pleased to see the pay-car.

Now the Lord is a sure paymaster. He will surely give us the wages for which we have worked; for this is just and right. And the "wages of sin is death." If you are out of Christ, allow me to propound these questions: How many who are reading this article desire their wages just now? How many would feel glad to see the pay-car of sin roll in, and the Lord hand you your wages at this very hour? Hands up! Not one, I am sure, desires this. Then why work for wages we do not want? Jesus has borne the penalty of sin,—death,—and we can go free if we will but turn to Him.

An example of the terrible retribution of sin is placed before us in God's Word. The Lord took Sodom and Gomorrah, sunken in vice and moral depravity so low that all desire for repentance was eradicated, and placed them before us as an awful warning of the consequences following upon the transgression of God's law. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 7. "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly." 2 Peter 2:6.

These cities are not still burning. They are not always burning yet never consumed. No more will the wicked be. As cities they were annihilated, burned up, consumed, reduced to "ashes." So with the wicked. "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." "And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." Mal. 4: 1, 3.

Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the vengeance of "eternal fire," not a fire eternally burning, but a fire which was eternal in its consequences. It destroyed these cities eternally; as cities they will appear upon this earth no more forever. The wicked likewise "go away into everlasting punishment" (Matt. 25:46)—not everlasting torment, or exquisite torture, where, amid wails of agony, they burn, and curse their Creator through all the eternal ages to come.

They go away into "everlasting punishment;" that is certain. But what is the punishment?—"The wages of sin is death." Being without Christ, they have no life (John 3:36; 1 John 5:12); and having no life, they are dead. And having no life, or no Christ, through eternity they will remain everlastingly dead. They "go away" into a death from which they will never be resurrected. Consumed like stubble, dry and dead, they cease to be as completely as did Sodom and Gomorrah. "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." "The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." Ps. 37:10, 20.

Reader, it is a terrible thing to be without Christ. To be found at last without a Life-giver will be to have made a failure of life. It will mean to lose all; for when life is gone, all is gone. But, bless God, He still knocks at the heart's door. Will you not open to Him, and receive the proffered gift of eternal life?

G. B. THOMPSON.

Rome, N. Y.