Would not God be very unkind to allow the wicked and
impenitent to enter in and mar their joys? The angels are happy to
welcome a returning wanderer. But if they should see an unsubdued
spirit directing his flight towards heaven, they all would pray to
God that he might not be permitted to enter, to throw discord into
their songs, and sorrow into their hearts. God is love. He will keep
heaven pure and happy. All who will be obedient to him, he will
gladly elevate to walk the streets of the New Jerusalem, and to
inhabit the mansions which he has built.
But those who will not submit to his authority must be shut out for
ever. If we do not yield to the warnings and entreaties which now come
to us from God, we must hear the sentence, "Depart from me,"--"I know
you not." God uses all the means which he deems proper to reclaim us;
and when he finds that we are incorrigible, then does he close upon us
the doors of our prison, that we never may escape.
If God cared not for the happiness of his children, he would break
these laws; he would tear down this prison; he would turn all its
guilty inmates loose upon the universe, to rove and to desolate at
their pleasure. But, blessed be God, he is love; and the brightness
and glory of heaven never can be marred by the entrance of sin. In
hell's dreary abyss, the wretched outcasts from heaven will find
their secure and eternal abiding place.
Pages:
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111