Spurgeon: "The sin of unbelief"

“But that captain had replied to the man of God, and she had told him: 'Here, even if the Lord made windows in heaven, could such a thing ever happen?’ And Elisha had told him: 'Well, you will see it with your own eyes, my no will eat '” (2 Re 7:19).

A righteous man can be a means to the salvation of thousands of other people. Believers are “the salt of the earth”, they are what holds back impiety (2 Tessalonicesi 2:6-7). Without them, humanity would be completely destroyed. A righteous man lived in the city of Samaria, named Elisha, servant of the Lord. Devotion was completely extinguished at the court, and the king was a sinner of the worst kind: his iniquity was evident and known. Joram followed the ways of his father Ahab, and made himself false gods. The people of Samaria fell as their ruler; turned away from the Eternal. They had forgotten the God of Israel; they did not remember Jacob's warning, and in their wicked idolatry they bowed down before the idols of the pagans. therefore, the Lord of hosts let their enemies oppress them until the curse of Ebal was fulfilled in the streets of Samaria: “The most delicate and refined woman … who would not have dared to put the sole of his foot on the ground, she felt so delicate and refined”, he would look evil at his own children and devour them because of the hunger to which they would be reduced by the enemy (Deuteronomy 28:56). In this extreme situation, one righteous man was the means of salvation. The single grain of salt preserved the entire city; that one servant of God was the means for the liberation of the entire besieged multitude.

For Elisha's sake the Lord sent a promise the next day that food that could not be obtained at any price would be sold at the lowest possible price right at the gates of Samaria. We can imagine the joy of the people when the prophet spoke these words. They knew he was a prophet of the Lord, who was under the anointing, and that all his past prophecies had been fulfilled. They knew he was a man sent by God, who proclaimed the message of the Eternal. Certainly the monarch's eyes must have shone with joy upon hearing the news, while the starving multitude leapt for happiness at the thought of being freed from famine so quickly, shouting: “tomorrow, tomorrow our hunger will end, and we will eat freely”.

Anyway, the captain on whose arm the king leaned, expressed his doubts. It wasn't any of the people who did this, but an aristocrat. It is no coincidence that God seldom chose men who are great in this world. Earthly honors and faith in Christ hardly go together. This great man thought: “impossible!” e, as an insult to the prophet, said: “Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, could such a thing ever happen?” (2 Re 7:2).

The sin of this man lies in the fact that after repeated tests of the ministry of Elisha, he still did not believe in the words he spoke from God. Had, no doubt, witnessed the admirable defeat of Moab; he was frightened at the news of the resurrection of the Shunammite's son; he knew that Elisha had foretold and revealed the plans of the king of Syria, and hit entire armies with blindness; he had seen the bands of the Syrians in the heart of Samaria, and he probably knew the miracle of the widow’s oil and the ransom of her children from slavery; the healing of Naaman, army chief, at the hand of Elisha was a topic of conversation at the court; but yet, despite all these tests and confirmations of the authority and anointing of the prophet, that man doubted, and insulted him by saying that heaven would have to be an open window for the promise to be fulfilled.

Then, through the mouth of that same prophet who had just proclaimed the promise, God said: “Well, you will see it with your own eyes, my no won't eat”. And that prophecy, like all the prophecies of the Lord, was fulfilled: trampled by crowds in the streets of Samaria, the captain died at the city gate, seeing with his eyes the promised goods, but not being able to eat it. He saw the prophecy fulfilled, but he did not live to be able to enjoy it. In his case, seeing meant believing, but don't enjoy those goods.

I would like to invite you to pay attention to two things: the sin of that man and his punishment. Perhaps I will speak very little of him, having already explained the circumstances, but I will speak of the sin of unbelief and its punishment.

I. First of all, the sin.

His sin was unbelief. He doubted God's promise. In this particular case, unbelief took the form of a doubt about divine truthfulness, or distrust of the power of God. Perhaps he doubted that God really meant what he had said, or considered whether it was possible for God to fulfill His promise.

Unbelief has multiple phases of the moon, and more shades of the chameleon. It is commonly said that the devil sometimes comes in one form, and other times in another. This is certainly true of Satan's firstborn, disbelief, since its forms are a legion. Sometimes unbelief presents itself as an angel of light. It calls itself humility, and makes man say: “I don't want to be presumptuous; I don't dare to think that God can forgive me; my sins are too great”. We call it humility, and we thank God that our friends are in such happy condition. I don't thank God for any of such deceptions. It is the devil who disguises himself as an angel of light; it is actually disbelief.

Other times we see unbelief in the form of a doubt about the immutability of God: “The Lord loved me, but maybe he'll reject me tomorrow. He helped me until yesterday, and I rest in the shadow of His wings; but maybe I won't get any help in the next affliction. He may have rejected me; he may have forgotten about His covenant, and forget to have mercy”.
Sometimes this infidelity takes the form of doubting God's power. We face new distresses every day, we are caught in a web of difficulties, and we think: “Surely the Lord cannot deliver us”. We strive to free ourselves from our burden, but we find we can't, we think God's arm is as short as ours, and that His power is as insignificant as human power.

A terrible form of unbelief is that doubt that prevents men from coming to Christ: it leads the sinner to distrust Christ's ability to save him, to doubt the will of Jesus to accept such a great transgressor. But treacherous unbelief reveals itself in its most repugnant form, with all its nuances, when it leads to blaspheming God, and to madly deny His existence. Infidelity, deism, and atheism, they are the ripe fruits of this evil tree; they are the most terrifying eruption of the volcano of disbelief. Unbelief shows its true nature when, taking off the mask and putting aside the disguise, it advances impetuously on the ground, proclaiming the rebellious cry: “No God”, and striving in vain to shake the throne of Divinity, raising his arms against Jehovah, and with his arrogance,

“He will snatch the balance and the scepter from His hand,
Reclaim His righteousness – be the god of God”.

It is then that unbelief truly reaches its complete perfection, and then it can be recognized for what it really is, for even the slightest unbelief is made of that same nature.

I am astonished, and I am sure you will be too, when I tell you that there are strange people in the world who do not believe that unbelief is a sin. Strange people, I have to call them, because their faith is solid in every other respect; But, mistakenly, for consistency with the articles of their creed, they deny that unbelief is a sin.

I remember a young man who met friends and ministers, who were debating whether not believing the gospel was a sin. While they were arguing, the young man said: “gentlemen, I am not perhaps in the presence of Christians? You believe in the Bible, oppure no?” They replied: “We are Christians, naturally”. “Then”, he replied, “Scripture does not say perhaps: 'As for sin, because they don't believe in Me? And therefore not believing in Christ, it is not sin that condemns sinners?”.

I never thought that people could be so reckless as to venture to assert that “the fact that a sinner does not believe in Christ is not a sin”. I thought, however far their feelings might take them, they would never tell a lie to back up the truth, e, in my opinion, this is just what men like them are doing.

The truth is a strong tower, and it never needs to be backed up with error. The Word of God will resist against all the machinations of man. I would never invent sophistry to prove that the unbelief of non-believers is not a sin, since I am certain, since Scripture teaches us, that “this is the judgment: the light came into the world and men preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil”; and when I read: “Whoever does not believe is already condemned, because he did not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (Giovanni 3:18-19), I affirm, and the Word declares it, that unbelief is a sin. Certainly with rational people and without prejudices, you do not need to reason to prove it.

It is not a sin that a creature doubts the claims of its Creator? It is not a crime and an insult to Divinity that I, an atom, a speck of dust, you dare deny His words? It is not the very essence of arrogance and the apotheosis of pride that a son of Adam says, even only in his heart, “It gave, I doubt Your grace; It gave, I doubt Your love; God I doubt Your power”? Oh, friends, believe me, if you could put all your sins together – if you could take murder, blasphemy, lust, adultery, fornication, and all that is vile, and put them all together in one great globe of black corruption – they would not reach the gravity of the sin of unbelief. This is the monarch of sin, the quintessence of guilt; the mixture of the poison of all crimes; the dregs of the wine of Gomorrah; it is the first of sins, Satan's masterpiece, the devil's masterpiece.

I will try this morning, for a while', to show you the extremely evil nature of the sin of unbelief.

1. First of all, the sin of unbelief will appear to us extremely atrocious if we remember that it is the mother of every other iniquity. There is no crime that unbelief cannot produce. I believe that the fall of Adam depended a lot on it. It was at this point that the devil tempted Eve. He told her: “Come! God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1). Whispering, insinuated a doubt: “Come! God said this?”, as if to say, “You are quite sure that God said this?”. It was through unbelief, of that little doubt, that the other sin entered; the curiosity, and the rest followed; she touched the fruit, and destruction came into the world. since, unbelief was the most prolific mother of all sins. An unbeliever is capable of committing the vilest crimes that have ever been committed. Disbelief, gentlemen! The cause of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, what authorized Rabshakeh to curse, and which caused the deicide, by having Jesus killed. Disbelief! He has sharpened the suicide blade! He filled many bowls with poison; by the thousands he has led to the gallows; and many to a shameful death, for they murdered themselves and appeared with blood-dripping hands before the court of their Creator, because of disbelief.

Give me an unbeliever – let me know if he doubts God's Word – let me know if he distrusts your promises as well as your threats; and with these premises, I will show you that, unless a great power prevents it, that man will be guilty of the most heinous and blackest crimes. Ah! This is Beelzebub's sin; come Beelzebub, he is the leader of all evil spirits. It is written that Jeroboam sinned and caused Israel to sin; and of unbelief it can be said that it does not make only the unbeliever sin, but it also causes others to sin; it is the egg of all crime, the seed of every crime; in fact, everything that is evil and vile lies hidden in that one word: disbelief.

And let me tell you here, that unbelief in the Christian is of the same nature as unbelief in the sinner. The final result will not be the same, since it can be forgiven in the Christian; and, it can be, for his condemnation fell on the Lamb; it was canceled and atoned for; but its sinful nature is the same. Indeed, if there can be a graver sin than the unbelief of a sinner, that is the unbelief of a saint. Let a saint doubt God's Word – that a saint does not trust God after the countless examples of His love, after the thousands of proofs of His mercy, surpasses everything. In the saints, Furthermore, unbelief is the root of other sins.

When I am perfect in faith, I'll be perfect in everything else; I will always follow the precept if I have always believed in the promise. But it's because my faith is weak, that I sin. If I'm in trouble, if I can cross my arms and say: Jehovah Jireh, the Eternal will provide, I will not use the wrong means to get out of it. But if they are in trouble and difficulty, and I have no faith in God, what will I do? Maybe I'll steal, or I will do some dishonest act to get out of the hands of my creditors; or whether I refrained from committing such a transgression, I can sink into my anxieties. Once the faith is taken away, the reins break; and who can ride a steed without reins or bridle? Unbelief is the mother of vice; she is the one who conceives of sin; e, therefore, I affirm that it is a fatal evil – one of the greatest sins.

2. Furthermore, unbelief not only begets sin, but it also feeds it. How can men continue to live in their sins under the thunder of the Sinai preacher? When a minister, by the grace of God, shouts from the pulpit: “Cursed is anyone who does not persevere in all the things written in the book of the law to practice them” (to see Galati 3:10), how can it be that when a sinner hears the terrible threats of God's righteousness, his heart remains hardened, and so he keeps walking in his wicked ways? Here is the reason: it is because disbelief towards those threats prevents them from having an effect on him. When our diggers and miners go to work in Sevastopol, they could not stand in front of the walls, if they didn't have something to protect them from the stones; thus they raise embankments (land masses for dike or defense, n.d.t.), behind which they can work without fear. The same is true for non-believers. The devil gives him unbelief; he thus raises an embankment, and find refuge behind it. Ah! Sinners, when the Holy Ghost breaks down your unbelief – when he reveals the truth to you with conviction and power, how the law will shake your soul!

If only man believed that God's law is holy, that the commandments are holy, righteous, and good, how he would feel shaken on the mouth of hell; there would be no formal or slumbering people in the house of God; there would be no distracted listeners; nor believers who go away and live forgetting what kind of people they are.

Oh, once the sinner is free from unbelief, as he will feel the thunder of the law! How can it happen that men hear the supplication of the cross of Calvary, yet they do not come to Christ? How can it be that when the sufferings of Jesus are preached, and ends with an exhortation: “there is room for you too” – how can it be that when we dwell on His cross and His death, men are not pricked in their hearts? And said:

“The law and judgments only harden,
If they operate alone:
But the sense of forgiveness acquired with the Blood
It will also melt hearts of stone”.

I think the story of Calvary is enough to break the stones. The rocks split when Jesus died. I believe that the tradition of Golgotha ​​is enough to make tears flow from a flint, and to make tears of penitent love fall from the eyes of the most miserable; yet we announce to you, and we repeat it often, but who weeps for these things? Who cares? Gentlemen, you sit indifferent as if it doesn't concern you at all. Oh! look and see all that has been done. It means nothing to you that Jesus had to die? You seem to mean: “It's nothing”. What's the reason? It is the unbelief that comes between you and the cross. If it weren't for that thick veil between you and the Savior's eyes, His loving gaze would melt your hearts. But unbelief is the sin that prevents the power of the Gospel from working in the sinner: and it is only when the Holy Spirit removes it – only when the Holy Spirit destroys that infidelity and destroys it completely, that we can see the sinner come and put his trust in Jesus.

3. But there is a third point. Unbelief makes man unable to do good. “Anything that does not come from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23) it is a great truth in several respects. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (cf.. Jews 11:6). You will never hear me say a word against morality; I will never say that honesty is not a good thing, or that sobriety is not a good thing; Unlike, I will say that they are commendable things; but I will also say that they are important things here on earth, but not in heaven. If you don't have something better than your justice, you will never reach the sky. Some Indian tribes use small strips of cloth in place of money, and if I lived there with them I would have nothing to object to; but coming to England, the strips of cloth are no longer of any use. Therefore honesty, sobriety, and other similar things, they can be very important among men – the more they are found in your life, the better. I urge you, so that all things lovely and pure, and of good reputation, are in you – but they won't serve you up there. All these things put together, without faith, they do not please God. Virtues, without faith they are whitened sins. Obedience, without faith, if it is possible that it exists, it is disobedience covered in gold. Not believing cancels everything. It is the fly in oil; is the poison in the dish. Without faith, with all the virtues of purity, with all the benevolence of philanthropy, with all the benevolence of disinterested sympathy, with all the talents of the intellect, with all the courage of patriotism, and with all decisions of principle – “Without faith it is impossible to please God”.

You do not see, therefore, how evil is unbelief, which prevents men from doing good? And, this also applies to Christians themselves; unbelief disables them. Let me tell you a story – a story of the life of Christ. A man had a suffering son, possessed by an evil spirit. Jesus was on Mount Tabor, transfigured; so that young man's father took his son to the disciples. What the disciples did? They said: “we will chase that spirit from your son”. Then they laid their hands on the young man, and tried to cast out the demon; but they whispered to themselves “we fear that we will not be able to do so”. The young man began to grind his teeth, foaming and rolling on the ground. The infernal spirit within him was alive; it was still there. In vain they repeated the exorcism; the evil spirit stood there like a lion in its lair, and their efforts failed to drive him out. “Go out!” they said; but it did not go away. “Go into the abyss!” they shouted; but he was adamant. The incredulous lips cannot face the evil one, which could well say: “I know faith, I know Jesus, but who are you? You have no faith” (cf.. proceedings 19:15). If they had faith like a mustard seed, they could have cast out that demon; but their faith had failed, and therefore they could not do anything.

Let's also look at the case of poor Peter. While he had faith, Peter walked on the waves of the sea towards Jesus. It was wonderful; I almost envy him for this. And if Peter's faith hadn't failed, it could have crossed the Atlantic to America. But seeing the strong wind he feared, and I think “it will sweep me away”; and seeing the waves, he shouted, “mi sommergeranno”; and he must have thought: “how could I have been so presumptuous as to want to walk on the waters of this sea?”. And Peter began to sink. Faith was what sustained him; but disbelief pushed him down. You know you and me, throughout our life, we will have to walk on water? The life of a Christian is always like walking on water – mine is – and any wave could swallow it and devour it, but faith keeps him steadfast. But when you stop believing, in that moment the distress hits you, and makes you sink. Oh, why do you doubt, then?

Faith produces every virtue; unbelief kills them all. Thousands of prayers have been strangled in the bud by unbelief. Unbelief is guilty of the infanticide of many supplications; many hymns of praise that could have joined the heavenly choirs, they have been drowned out by some incredulous murmuring; many noble deeds conceived in the heart have been made wither by unbelief, before they can be realized. Many men could have been missionaries; they could have eagerly preached the gospel of their Lord; but they were incredulous. Once a giant was made incredulous, he becomes like a dwarf. Faith is the Sansonian braid of the Christian; cut it, and even when you gouged out his eyes, he will not be able to do anything.

4. The next thing we will observe is that unbelief has been severely punished. Look at the scriptures! I see a peaceful and beautiful world; its mountains laugh in the sun, and its pastures rejoice in the golden light. The young women dance, and the young people sing. But here it is, a venerable ancestor with a grave expression raises his hand and shouts: “A flood is about to flood the earth: the fountains of the great abyss will be enlarged, and all things will be submerged. Look at that ark! It took me a hundred and twenty years to build it; find refuge in it, and scamperete”. “Aha! Old, go away, you and your silly predictions! Aha! Let's have fun while we can! When the flood comes, then we will build an ark; but there is no deluge in sight; go and tell the fools; we don't believe in these things”. Watch the unbelievers continue their happy dance. Listen, incredulous! Don't hear the rumbling of the earthquake? The bowels of the earth move, and here, streams fill them, coming from the depths where God has hidden them. The sky opens up; rains. Not drops, but clouds descend. A cataract, like that of ancient Niagara, comes down from heaven with a mighty roar. Both firmaments, both depths – the one below and the one above – they tighten their grip. Now, incredulous, Where are you now! This is your last residue; a man, with his wife at his side, they are on the last summit that emerges from the waters. You see it over there? The water has reached his loins now. Hear his last cry! He is about to be submerged – and drowns. And when Noah looks out of the ark he sees nothing. Nothing! It is a profound emptiness. Everything is upside down, covered, sunk. What was the cause? What death brought to earth? Unbelief. By faith Noah was rescued from the flood. Out of disbelief the rest of the men drowned.

And don't you know that unbelief prevented Moses and Aaron from entering Canaan? They did not honor God; they hit the rock when they did, according to the order of God, they should have talked to it (cf.. Numbers 20:7-12). They didn't believe; and therefore the punishment came upon them, so that they could not inherit that good land, for which they had toiled and worked.

Let me take you to where Moses and Aaron lived – in the vast and immense desert. We'll walk it for a while; we will be like the wandering Bedouins, we'll walk the desert for a while. There lies a sun-bleached carcass; there another, and there yet another. What do these dry bones mean? What are these bodies – there a man, and there a woman? What are all those? How they became corpses here? Certainly some large camp that was here must have been blown away by an explosion, or from a massacre. Ah, no, no. These are the bones of Israel; those skeletons are the old tribes of Jacob. They could not enter the promised land due to unbelief. They did not trust in God. The scouts they had sent said it was not possible to conquer that land (cf.. Numbers 13:27 e seg.). Unbelief was the cause of their death. It was not the Anakim who destroyed Israel; it was not the immense desert that exterminated them; it was not the Jordan that prevented them from reaching Canaan; nor were they killed by the Hivvei or the Jebusites; it was unbelief alone that kept them out of Canaan. What a judgment for Israel, after forty years of pilgrimage; they could not enter because of their unbelief!

Another example is Zacharias. He doubted, and the angel made him become mute. His mouth was closed due to disbelief. But, oh! if you knew the worst case of the effects of doubt – to let you know how God punished him, I must take you to the siege of Jerusalem, the worst massacre that history has known; when the Romans razed its walls to the ground, and put the inhabitants to death, or they sold them as slaves in the market. Have you ever read about the destruction of Jerusalem, by Tito? Or the Masada tragedy, when the Jews preferred to kill each other rather than fall into the hands of the Romans? Do you not know that until today the Jews travel the earth as pilgrims, without a home and without a land? They have been severed, like a branch from the vine; because? Because of disbelief. Whenever you see a Jew with a sad expression – you recognize him as a stranger from another land, who runs through this country of ours like a slender – whenever you see it, stop and think: “It was unbelief that made you kill Christ, and now it has led you to be wanderers on earth; and only faith – faith in the crucified Nazarene – can lead you back to your country, and restore it to its former glory”.

Unbelief, stars, he has the mark of Cain on his forehead. God hates her; God has dealt very hard blows to her: and eventually God will destroy it. Unbelief dishonors God. Every other crime affects God's territory, but unbelief aims to strike His divinity, to incriminate His truthfulness, to deny His benevolence, to blaspheme His attributes, to defame His character; therefore, the God of all things, first and foremost he hates unbelief, wherever it is.

5. And to conclude these observations – since I have already dwelt enough – let me remind you that you will be able to know the brutal nature of unbelief by knowing this: which is a sin that can harm you. There is a sin for which Christ never died; it is the sin against the Holy Spirit. There is another sin for which Christ never made any atonement. List each crime in the calendar of the evil one, and I will show you people who have obtained forgiveness for it. But ask me if the man who dies in unbelief can be saved, and I will answer you that there is no forgiveness for that man. There is an atonement made for the temporary unbelief of the Christian, only because it is temporary; but the final disbelief – the doubt in which men die – it was never atoned for. You can browse the entire book, but you will see that there is no atonement for a man who dies in unbelief; there is no pity for him.

If he were guilty of any other sin, it would have been enough if he had believed, and he would be forgiven; but this is the damaging exception: when he has no faith.
The demons grab it! The hellish angels drag him down to his fate. He is faithless and unbelieving, and such are those for whom hell was made. It is their part, their prison, the chains are branded with their names, and they will always remember that “whoever does not believe will be condemned”.

II. We conclude with the second argument, the punishment.

“You will see it with your own eyes, my no won't eat”. Listen, incredulous! This morning you heard about your sin; now listen to your judgment: “you will see with your own eyes, my no don't eat”. This is often the case with the saints of God. When they are incredulous, they see mercy with their eyes, but they cannot enjoy it. Now, there is food; but there are some of God's saints who come here on Sunday, and they say: “I don't know if the Lord will be with me or not”. Others of them say: “Good, the Gospel is announced, but I don't know if it will be successful”. They doubt and fear all the time. Listen to them when they leave the place of worship: “Then, you enjoyed a good spiritual meal this morning?” “I have not received anything”. Of course; you have seen with your own eyes, but you have not eaten of it, because you didn't have faith. If you had come with faith, you would have gotten a bite.

I have known Christians who have become so critical that – spiritually speaking – if their portion of food is not given at the appropriate time, it is not cut into exactly square pieces, and served on a top quality porcelain plate, they cannot eat it. They prefer to do without it; and they will have to do without it, until hunger reaches them. They will have afflictions, which will be like quinine to them; they will be eaten by giving them a bitter taste; they will be kept in prison for a day or two until their appetite returns, and then they will be happy to eat the most common food, served on normal plates, or even without any dishes.

But the real reason God's people don't feed under the ministry of the gospel is that they don't have faith. If you believed, if you only listened to one promise, it would be enough for you; if you hear something good from this pulpit it would be food for your soul, since it is not the quantity of what we hear, to do us good – but rather it is what we receive into our hearts with sincere and living faith, to be of benefit to us.

But let me apply this mainly to the unconverted. They often see God doing great works, with your own eyes, but they cannot eat it. A crowd of people gathered here this morning to see for themselves, but I doubt everyone will eat. If men could eat with their eyes, most would be well fed. E, spiritually speaking, people cannot feed with their ears, that is, listening, nor just looking at the preacher; and so we notice that most of the congregation just came to see; “Ah, let's hear what this talker has to say, this reed shaken by the wind”.

But they don't have faith; they come, and they see, and they see, and they see, and they never eat. There is someone here in front, that is converted; and someone down there, who is called by sovereign grace; some poor sinner is crying under the sense of his guilt; another is crying out to God for mercy; another is saying: “Have mercy on me, that I am a sinner”. A great work is taking place here, but some of you know nothing about it; nothing has moved in your hearts; because? Because you think it is impossible; you think that God is not at work. He hasn't promised to work for those who don't honor Him. Unbelief makes you sit here in times of awakening and the outpouring of God's grace, impassive, not called, not saved.

But the worst fulfillment of this judgment is about to come! Whitefield sometimes used to raise his hands and scream – how I wish I could scream if my voice allowed it – “The anger to come! The anger to come!”. It is not the anger of the hour that you must fear, but the anger to come; and there will be a judgment to come, When “you will see with your own eyes, my no don't eat”. I seem to see the last big day. The last hour has struck. The bell is heard ringing its funeral toll – time has passed, we enter eternity; the sea is boiling; the waves are illuminated with supernatural splendor. A rainbow is seen – a cloud in the sky, and a throne on it, and on the throne sits one who is like the Son of Man. I know him. He has a balance in his hand; before him are the books – the book of life, the book of death, the book of remembrance. I see His splendor, and I rejoice; I contemplate His sumptuous appearance, and I smile with the joy that He is “admired by all of His saints”.

But there is also a crowd of miserable unhappy people, crouch in horror, to be able to hide, yet they look, for their eyes must see Him whom they have pierced; but when they look they cry out: “Hide us from his face”. Which face? “Rocks, hide me from his face”. Which face? “The face of Jesus, he who died, but what time has come to judgment”. But you can't hide from his face; you have to see with your own eyes; but you will not sit on His right, dressed in magnificent clothes; and when the triumphal procession of Jesus comes on the clouds, you will not march in it; you will see, but you will not be there. Oh! I seem to see now, the mighty Savior in His chariot, towards the sky. See how His great entourage makes the heavens tremble as He takes them to the heights of heaven. Row of people dressed in white follow Him, and to the wheels of His chariot He drags the devil, the death, and hell. Listen, how they shout: “You have ascended to heaven; You took slavery captive”. Listen, as they sing the solemn hymn: “Alleluia, the Lord God Almighty reigns”. Look at the splendor of their appearance; look at the crowns on their heads; look at their white clothes; observe the rapt expression on their faces; listen to their songs lifted up to heaven as the Lord says: “I will rejoice in you with joy, I will rejoice at you with songs, for I have betrothed you to me with an everlasting love”.

But in the meantime, where are you? You can see them, but where are you? Can you see, but you cannot eat it. The wedding banquet table is set; the fine wines of eternity are put on the table; the guests sit at the King's banquet; but you are there, miserable, and hungry, and you cannot eat it. If you could have just one bite from the table – if you could be dogs to eat the falling crumbs.

But to conclude; I seem to see you somewhere in hell, attached to a rock, while remorse torments your heart; and here, up there, like Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, you look up and you recognize it. “It is that poor man who was at my dunghill, and the dogs licked his wounds; there it is now, in the sky, while I am condemned down here. Lazarus – and, he is like the Lazarus in the parable; and I who was rich in the temporal world are now here in hell. “Father Abraamo, have mercy on me, and sends Lazarus to dip his fingertip in the water to cool my tongue” (Luca 16:24). Ma no! It can not be; it can not be. And while you lie there, if there is anything worse than that, it will be to see the saints in heaven. Oh, to think of seeing my mader in heaven while I am cast out! Oh, sinner, thinks, see your brother in heaven – the one who was cradled in the same cradle, and with whom you played under the same roof – but you are thrown out! And you, husband, here, your wife is in heaven, and you are among the damned. And you see, father! Your son is before the throne; and you! Cursed by God and cursed by men, you are in hell. Oh, hell of hell will be seeing our friends in heaven, and ourselves lost. I beg you, you who listen to me, for the death of Christ – for His agony and for the blood He shed – for His cross and His death – for all that is holy – for all that is sacred in heaven and on earth – for all that is solemn in time or in eternity – for all that is horrible in the underworld, or is it glorious in heaven – for that awful thought, “forever” – I beg you, put these things in your heart, and remember if you are damned, it will be disbelief that has harmed you. If you are lost, it will be because you have not believed in Christ; and if you perish, this will be your greatest regret: that you have not believed in your Savior.