June 26

“Art thou become like unto us9” — Isaiah xiv. 10.

THAT must be the apostate professor’s doom when his &/i appears before God? How will he bear that voice, “Depart, ye cursed; thou hast rejected Me, and I reject thee; thou hast played the harlot, and departed from Me: I also have banished thee forever from My presence, and will not have mercy upon thee “? What will be this wretch’s shame at the last great day, when, before assembled multitudes, the apostate shall be unmasked? See the profane, and sinners who never professed religion, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at him. “There he is,” says one; “will he preach the gospel in hell?” “There he is,” says another; “he rebuked mc for cursing, and was a hypocrite himself!” “Aha!” says another; “here comes a psalm-singing professor — one who was always at his meeting; he is the man who boasted of his being sure of everlasting life; and here he is!” No greater eagerness will ever be seen among Satanic tormentors than in that day when devils drag the hypocrite’s soul down to perdition. Bunyan pictures this with massive but awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the back-way to hell. Seven devils bound the wretch with nine cords, and dragged him from the road to heaven, in which he had professed to walk, and thrust him through the back-door into hell. Mind that back-way to hell, professors! “Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith.” Look well to your state; sco whether you be in Christ or not. It is the easiest thing in the world to give a lenient verdict when one’s self is to be tried; but 0, be just and true here. Be just to all, but be rigorous to yourself. Remember, if it be not a rock on which you build, when the house shall fall, great will be the fall of It. 0, may the Lord give you sincerity, constancy, and firmness; and in no day, however evil, may you be led Ko turn aside.