The Restless Bed # 1

The Restless Bed # 1

What is sown now - will be reaped in eternity.

Eternal life is the free gift of a gracious God.

Eternal punishment is the just wages of eternal sin.

We deserve hell now - but we may escape it by fleeing to Jesus. If we refuse to do so - then we can only expect to reap the fruit of our folly.

Heaven is the gift of God's grace - but hell is the wages of sin.

Every sinner makes his own hell. In this light, let us look at the words of the Psalmist, "If I make my bed in hell" (Psalm 139:8).

The Residence. "IN hell."

What is hell?

Hell is the prison - in which the prisoners of God's justice are confined.

Hell is where punishment is inflicted on all who die at enmity with God.

Hell is the place where satan acts the part of the chief tormentor.

Hell is the place where conscience, armed with terrible power, torments the guilty soul.

Hell is the place where reflection, aided by a strong and tenacious memory, afflicts without mercy or cessation.

Hell is the place where God frowns justly and eternally on the naked soul.

Hell is the place where everything calculated to satiate with terror, fill with agony, and torture with pain, exist.

While everything calculated to inspire hope, give pleasure, or impart relief - is excluded forever.

Who is in hell?

satan and his demons - all those foul, wicked, and degraded spirits - who are filled with envy, malice, and enmity against God and man.

All unrepentant sinners - of all classes, creeds, places, and periods.

All who have stained the world with their crimes, afflicted others with their cruelties, and degraded themselves by their vices.

All the lowest, vilest, and basest of the human race!

God is there too, in His glorious majesty, almighty power, impartial justice, and awesome holiness! O how it will aggravate the sufferings of the lost - to have God's eye always fixed upon them, and the justice, holiness, and majesty of God ever shining before them!

What is in hell?

Justice with its flaming sword - is there.

Memory stored with the whole history of ones life - is there.

The worm that gnaws the vitals of the soul, but never dies - is there.

The fire that cannot be quenched, which tortures but never destroys our nature - is there.

But there is no Bible there.

There is no gospel with its joyful sound.

There is no gentle, loving Saviour.

There is no loving friend or dear relation.

There is nothing to lessen or alleviate suffering!

Hell concentrates in itself, all the elements of misery, degradation, wretchedness and woe!

~James Smith~

(continued with # 2)