A Misery Beyond All Expression!

"Then He will say to those on His left--Depart from Me,

you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for

the devil and his angels!" Matthew 25:41

This solemn sentence breathes out nothing but fire and

brimstone, terror and horror, dread and woe! The last

words that Christ will ever speak to the ungodly, will be:

the most tormenting and dreadful,

the most stinging and wounding,

the most killing and damning!

Here is utter rejection: "Depart from Me--Pack! Begone!

Get out of My sight! Let Me never more see your faces!"

"Depart from Me!" is the first and worst of that dreadful

sentence which Christ shall pass upon the ungodly at last.

Every syllable sounds horror and terror, grief and sorrow,

dread and astonishment--to all whom it concerns.

Certainly, the tears of hell are not sufficient to

bewail the loss of heaven!

Here is imprecation: "You who are cursed!"

"But Lord, if we must depart, let us depart blessed!"

"No! Depart--you who are cursed!" You shall be . . .

cursed in your bodies,

and cursed in your souls,

and cursed by God,

and cursed by Christ,

and cursed by angels,

and cursed by saints,

and cursed by devils,

and cursed by your wicked companions!

Yes, you shall now curse your very selves,

your very souls--that ever you have . . .

despised the gospel,

refused the offers of grace,

scorned Christ, and

neglected the means of your salvation!

O sinners, sinners--all your curses, all your maledictions

shall at last recoil upon your own souls! Now you curse

every person and thing which stand in the way of your

lusts, and which cross your designs. But at last, all the

curses of heaven and hell shall meet in their full power

and force upon you! Surely that man is eternally

cursed--who is cursed by Christ Himself!

"But, Lord, if we must depart, and depart cursed, oh let us

go into some good place!" "No! Depart into the eternal fire!"

Here is vengeance and continuance of it. You shall go into

fire, into eternal fire! The eternity of hell--is the hell of hell.

If all the fires that ever were in the world, were contracted

into one fire--how terrible would it be! Yet such a fire would

be but as 'painted fire' upon the wall--compared to the fire of

hell. It is a very sad spectacle to behold a malefactor's body

consumed little by little in a lingering fire. But ah, how sad,

how dreadful, would it be to experience what it is to lie in

unquenchable fire--not for a day, a month, or a year, or a

hundred or a thousand years--but forever and ever!

"If it were," says Cyril, "but for a thousand years, I could

bear it; but seeing it is for eternity--this frightens and

horrifies me!" "I am afraid of hell," says Isidore, "because

the worm there never dies, and the fire never goes out!"

To be tormented without end--this is that which goes

beyond all the bounds of desperation.

Grievous is the torment of the damned . . .

for the bitterness of the punishments;

but more grievous for the diversity of the punishments;

but most grievous for the eternity of the punishments!

To lie in everlasting torments,

to roar forever in anguish of heart,

to rage forever for madness of soul,

to weep, and grieve, and gnash the teeth forever

--is a misery beyond all expression!

Mark, everything that is conducible to the

torments of the damned, is eternal:

God who damns them is eternal!

The fire which torments them is eternal!

The prison and chains which hold them are eternal!

The worm which gnaws them is eternal!

The sentence which is upon them, shall be eternal!

Fire is the most furious of all elements, and therefore

the bodies of men cannot be more exquisitely tormented

than with fire. The bodies which sinned on earth, shall

be punished and tormented in hell. What can be more

grievous and vexatious, more afflicting and tormenting

to the bodies of men--than eternal fire? Oh, then, how

will the bodies of men endure to dwell in unquenchable

fire, to dwell in everlasting burnings! The brick-kilns of

Egypt, the fiery furnace of Babylon, are but as a spark,

compared to this tormenting hell, which has been

prepared of old to punish the bodies of sinners with.

"The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the

godless! Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire?

Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?" Is. 33:14

Wicked men, who are now the jolly fellows of the times,

shall one day go from burning--to burning; from burning

in sin--to burning in hell; from burning in flames of lusts

--to burning in flames of torment; except there be found

repentance on their side, and pardoning grace on God's side.

Surely, the serious thoughts of the agonies of hell

while people live--is one blessed way to keep them

from going into those torments after they die! Look!

as there is nothing more grievous than hell--so there

is nothing more profitable than the fear of hell.

"Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath!"

1 Thessalonians 1:10

"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to

receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ."

1 Thessalonians 5:9