43 Sermon Illustrations on Divine Judgment

The doctrine of future punishment is so clearly taught in God's Word that no one can escape it. It is not that God wants to threaten or frighten people into being good. As Dr. S. M. Merrill says, "It is the last resort of God's wisdom and holiness.... In it God takes no delight. Yet the necessities of good government, the maintenance of order under rightful authority, and the highest regard for the welfare of the good, require this ultimate vindication of righteousness at the expense of the incorrigibly wicked."

John Cameron, Bishop of Glasgow, was so given to covetousness, extortion, violence, and oppression, especially upon his own tenants and vassals, that he would scarcely afford them bread to eat, or clothes to cover their nakedness. But the night before Christmas Day, and in the midst of his cruelties, as he lay in bed at his house in Lockwood, he heard a voice summoning him to appear before the tribunal of Christ, and give an account of his actions. Being terrified with this notice and the pangs of a guilty conscience, he called up his servants, commanding them to bring lights, and stay in the room with him. He himself took a book in his hand, and began to read; but the voice, being heard a second time, struck all the servants with horror. The same voice repeating the summons a third time, and with a louder and more dreadful accent, the bishop, after a lamentable and frightful groan, was found dead in his bed, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, a dreadful spectacle to all beholders. This relation is made by the celebrated historian Buchanan, who records it as a remarkable example of God's judgment against the sin of oppression. Whitecross.

The great copper-mine of England extends many hundred yards under the ocean, whose waves are perpetually sounding in the ears of the workmen beneath. When storms sweep over the waters, the roar of the surges beating upon the shore is terrific, frightening the hardy miners from their toil, until, not unfrequently, they rush to the solid earth, under the open sky. The roof above the mine is veined with shining ore, whose tempting treasure has brought the excavation already too near the surface. A large wooden wedge has been driven into a crevice to keep out the dripping tide. An entrance of the mighty deep once made, and no living worker would come forth from the imprisoned flood. One who went into the mine says, "The awe-stricken visitor hurries away from the scene with a heart appalled in view of the hourly dangers. Who could win money at such a risk, with the sullen roar of ocean forever sounding its warning in his ears?"

Henry the Second of France, in a great rage against a Protestant counsellor, committed him into the hands of one of his nobles to be imprisoned, saying, that he would see him burned with his own eyes. Within a few days, the same nobleman, with a lance put into his hands by the king, at a tilting-match, run the said lance into one of the king's eyes; whereof he died.

Jupiter and Mercury once visited a village, and, disguised in human form, sought entertainment, but in vain, till they came to the thatched cottage of the aged Baucis and Philemon. Before the strangers was spread the best the place afforded, with careful attention. The unwasted wine revealed to them the gods, to whom they would have sacrificed. "This inhospitable village shall pay the penalty of its impiety. You shall be free. Come with us to the top of yonder hill," said the gods. They obeyed, and beheld the country around sink into a lake, while their own house grew into a magnificent temple, in which they served as priests until transformed together.

MURMURING Punishment of. It is calculated that not less than one million of the children of Israel died in the wilderness by God's judgment for their murmurings in forty years. Lowes.

On one occasion, St. Ambrose, coming to the house of a nobleman of Tuscany, was hospitably received; and he inquired concerning the state of his host. The nobleman replied, "I have never known adversity: every day hath seen me increasing in fortune, in honors, in possessions. I have a numerous family of sons and daughters, who have never cost me a pang of sorrow; I have a multitude of slaves, to whom my word is law; and I have never suffered either sickness or pain." Then Ambrose rose bastily from table, and said to his companions, "Arise! fly from this roof ere it fall upon us; for the Lord is not here." And scarcely had he left the house, when an earthquake shook the ground, and swallowed up the palace with all its inhabitants.

— Mrs. Jameson

It is to be observed, that, even as the world judges, small things constitute almost the whole of life. The great days of the year, for example, are few; and, when they come, they seldom bring any thing great to us. And the matter of all common days is made up of little things or ordinary transactions. Scarcely once in a year does any thing really remarkable befall us. If I were to begin and give an inventory of the things you do in a single day, —your muscular motions, each of which is accomplished by a separate act of will; the objects you see; the words you utter; the contrivances you frame; your thoughts, passions, gratifications, and trials, — many of you would not be able to hear it recited with sobriety. But three hundred and sixty-five such days make up a year; and a year is a twentieth, fiftieth, or seventieth part of your life. And thus, with the exception of some few striking passages or great and critical occasions, perhaps not more than five or six in all, your life is made up of common, and, as men are wont to judge, unimportant things. But yet, at the end, you have done an amazing work, and fixed an amazing result. You stand at the bar of God, and look back on a life made up of small things; but yet a life how momentous for good or evil!

— Dr. Bushnell

Among the active followers of Frances Wright, who were accustomed to meet in Concert Hall, in the city of New-York, was a Mr. B—l, remarkable for his deformity, the muscles of one of his legs being contracted. He was a man of more than ordinary intelligence, and frequently participated in the public debates, which were of frequent occurrence at the hall. This man, in one of his harangues, had the impudence to defy the Almighty's power, and dared him in the most blasphemous manner to seal his lips. Suddenly, thereafter, he became confused—his tongue faltered—his language became incoherent, and his hearers becoming disgusted, manifested their displeasure, and finishing his address with great difficulty, he sat down, amidst a shower of hisses. A short time subsequent to this event, he died a raving maniac; and his wife, who was a talented skeptic, renounced Infidelity, and united with the church.

In one of the western states there lived four young men, in their exterior, gentlemanly. Two were lawyers, one was a physician, the other a merchant —all avowed infidels.

On a certain occasion, they assembled with some of their associates, agreeably to a previous notice, and held a mockmeeting, where they administered to some of their party the ordinance of baptism; then the Lord's supper. They were exceedingly bitter against Christ and his followers.

A short time afterwards one of the men was taken suddenly ill, and soon became deranged and raged like a maniac. In this state he continued until death closed his earthly existence. The distorted features of the poor man seemed to fill every beholder with terror and dismay.

Very soon after this, another was taken and died in the same way, exhibiting the same terrific appearance; and then another—all apparently visited with the same calamity, sharing the same fate, which seemed to fill the whole neighborhood with alarm. And it is supposed that the last has also gone to give his account for his contempt of the gospel and the ordinances of Christ; for the last intelligence left him in a condition somewhat similar to those who had just gone before him, apparently on the verge of death.

These facts we have from a man who knew the men, gave us their names, the place of their residence, and was himself at the time a fellow-citizen with them. "Surely there is a God, nor is religion vain."

At a general muster in one of the Western States, a wicked man being addressed on the subject of religion was filled with rage, and uttered the horrid declaration that if Jesus of Nazareth was there, he would wring his neck! Suddenly a violent spasm seized the neck of the blasphemer, twisted it round, rolled his eyes nearly out of their sockets, and left him in this frightful position, a living monument of outraged omnipotence. "This fact," says a writer in the Vt. Chronicle, "was stated at a public meeting in this vicinity lately by a respectable gentleman of the bar from Ohio." The meeting referred to, took place in Lebanon, Ohio, and the lawyer referred to was Mr. Latham. His statements having been called in question, Mr. Latham procured a full corroboration of them from the Rev. Ahab Jinks, of Delaware, Ohio, who resided in the immediate vicinity where the circumstance took place. He narrates all the details of the matter more fully, and cites other authorities in the neighborhood where he lives.

It was near the close of one of those storms that deposit a great volume of snow upon the earth, that a middle-aged man, in one of the southern counties of Vermont, seated himself at a large fire in a log-house. He was crossing the Green Mountains from the western to the eastern side; he had stopped at the only dwelling of man in a distance of more than twenty miles, being the width of the parallel ranges of gloomy mountains; he was determined to reach his dwelling on the eastern side that day. In reply to a kind invitation to tarry in the house, and not dare the horrors of the increasing storm, he declared that he would go, and that the Almighty was not able to prevent him.

His words were heard above the bowling of the tempest. He travelled from the mountain valley where he had rested, over one ridge, and one more intervened between him and his family. The labor of walking in that deep snow must have been great, as its depth became near the stature of a man; yet he kept on and arrived within a few yards of the last summit, from whence he could have looked down upon his dwelling. He was near a large tree, partly supported by its trunk; his body bent forward, and his ghastly intent features told the stubbornness of his purpose to overpass that little eminence. But the Almighty had prevented him—the currents of his blood were frozen. For more than thirty years that tree stood by the solitary road, scarred to the branches with names, letters, and hieroglyphics of death, to warn the traveller that he trod over a spot of fearful interest.

The following fact took place in the spring of 1812, at a public house in Rochester, in the county of Kent, (Eng.)

Two wicked sailors meeting at a tavern one day, began to curse and swear, when the more violent of the two, in a tempest of passion, swore that he would kill the other. The awestruck landlord, raising his voice, said to the sailor who had made the threat, "What if God of a sudden should strike you dead, and sink you into hell with his curse upon you?" The sailor replied with a terrible oath, "The Almighty cannot do that—give me the tankard of beer—if God can do it, I'll go to hell before I drink it up."

With an awful oath he seized the tankard, but instantly fell down and expired!

All blasphemers are not thus suddenly and singularly cut off; but there is a point in every blasphemer's progress in sin, beyond which the forbearance of God cannot be extended to him longer. And how often does God say to such men, in the midst of their awful contempt and mockery of his power, "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther." We do not suppose that any miracle is wrought in such cases; but God, working in and through natural laws, so often causes sudden and awful deaths in immediate connection with bold and impious blasphemy, that we are justified in regarding such a death as a judgment of God, as sent in consequence of the blasphemy.

We mean to say as much as this, that in such cases the sinner's blasphemy and death are so far related to each other, that if the one had not been committed, the other had not occurred; if he had not blasphemed as he did, he had not died as he did.

During the prevalence of infidelity that occurred in this country after the reign of terror in France, Newburg, New-York, was remarkable for its Deism. Through the influence of "Blind Palmer," there was formed a Druidical Society, so called, which had a high priest, and met at stated times to uproot and destroy all true religion. They descended sometimes to acts the most impious and blasphemous. Thus, for instance, at one of their meetings in Newburg, they burned the Bible, baptized a cat, partook of the sacrament, and one of the number, approved by the rest, administered it to a dog. Now mark the retributive judgments of God towards these blasphemers, which at once commenced falling upon them. On the evening of that very day, he who had administered this mock sacrament, was attacked with a violent inflammatory disease; his inflamed eyeballs were protruded from their sockets; his tongue was swollen; and he died before morning in great bodily and mental agony. Dr. H., another of the same party, was found dead in his bed the next morning. D. D., a printer, who was present, three days after fell in a fit, and died immediately; and three others were drowned in a few days. In short, within five years from the time the Druidical Society was organized, it is a remarkable fact, that all the original members died in some strange or unnatural manner. There were thirty-six of them; and these were the actors in the horrid farce described above. Two were starved to death; seven drowned; eight shot; five committed suicide; seven died on the gallows; one was frozen to death; and three died "accidentally."

Of the foregoing statements there is good proof. They have been certified before justices of peace in New-York; and again and again published to the world. 74. In Effecting Conversions.

The Rev. Philip Henry, speaking once of a wicked son in the neighborhood, that was very undutiful to his mother, charged some of his children to observe the providence of God concerning him; "Perhaps," said he, "I may not live to see it, but do you take notice,

# 144. DIS

A candidate for the Christian ministry was once invited to settle in New England. In giving the invitation, there was a general union in the church and society. A few, however, were opposed to the settlement. Among the opposers, one man was exceedingly bitter. This person was open and explicit in expressing the hatred of his heart toward those doctrines, commonly called the doctrines of grace, that were preached by the candidate. A few weeks previous to the ordination, in conversation with some neighbors on the subject of the candidate's settlement among them, the man expressed himself in the following manner:—"I wish I may die before he is settled here." The appointed day approached, and the man remained unrelenting in his opposition. On the morning of the Sabbath preceding the day of ordination, being in usual health and busied in some domestic concern, he was seized in a very surprising manner. In a moment, he was struck into a state of insensibility, speechless, and hopeless. In this melancholy state he continued till Wednesday morning, the day of ordination, when, about two hours before the commencement of the public solemnities, according to his own desire, he expired! His case was so extraordinary as to baffle the attempts of skilful physicians, either to restore him or to satisfy themselves as to the natural cause of his situation.

The following affecting account of the death of several of the leading infidels in France, at the period of the revolution, is extracted from Sir Walter Scott's "Life of Buonaparte," and strikingly shows that deism can afford no help in the hour of trial:

None of all the victims of the reign of terror felt its disabling influence so completely as the despot Robespierre, who had so long directed its sway. The Hotel de Ville, where he and his companions had assembled, was surrounded by about 1500 men, and cannon turned upon the doors. The deserted group of theorists within conducted themselves like scorpions, which, when surrounded by fire, are said to turn their stings on each other, and on themselves. Mutual and ferocious upbraiding took place among these miserable men. "Wretch! were these the means you promised to furnish?" said Payan to Henriot, whom he found intoxicated, and incapable of resolution or exertion, and seizing on him as he spoke, he precipitated the revolutionary general from a window. Henriot survived the fall only to drag himself into a drain, in which he was afterwards discovered, and brought out to execution. The younger Robespierre threw himself from the window, but did not perish on the spot. Las Basas dispatched himself with a pistol-shot. St. Just, after imploring his comrades to kill him, attempted his own life with an irresolute hand, and failed. Couthon lay beneath the table brandishing a knife, with which he repeatedly wounded his bosom, without daring to add force enough to reach his heart. Robespierre, in an unsuccessful attempt to shoot himself, had only inflicted a horrible fracture on his under jaw.

In this situation they were found, like wolves in their lair, foul with blood, mutilated, despairing, and yet not able to die. Robespierre lay on a table in an ante-room, his head supported by a deal box, and his hideous countenance half hidden by a dirty cloth bound round the shattered chin.

The captives were carried in triumph to the convention, who, without admitting them to the bar, ordered them, as outlaws, for instant execution. As the fatal ears passed to the guillotine, those who filled them, but especially Robespierre, were overwhelmed with execrations, from the friends and relatives of victims whom he had sent on the same melancholy road.

The nature of his previous wound, from which the cloth had never been removed, till the executioner tore it off, added to the torture of the sufferer. The shattered jaw dropped, and the wretch yelled aloud, to the horror of the spectators. A masque, taken from that dreadful head, was long exhibited in different nations of Europe, and appalled the spectators by its ugliness, and the mixture of fiendish expression with that of bodily agony.

The disease of which Herod the Great died, and the misery which he suffered under it, plainly showed that the hand of God was then in a signal manner upon him; for not 311-316 the scene was suddenly changed. News came to the justice that his son at Oxford was gone off with a player: this prevented one perjurer from attending. The clergyman, who was determined to be present, and boasted of the service that would be done to the church by prosecution, was removed by sudden death. One of the witnesses who lived at Cromast, was prevented by a violent disease, of which he subsequently died. Another of them fell down and broke his leg, and so was hindered. In short, of seven or eight persons who were engaged in this design, only one was left capable of appearing. He was a gardener, who had frequently been employed by Mr. Stennett at day-labor, who had never been admitted into the meeting. This man was expected to be a very material witness, and was kept in liquor several days for that purpose. But coming to his reason just as the assizes drew near, he went about town exclaiming against his ingratitude and perjury, and refused to go. So when Mr. Stennett came to Newbury, neither prosecutor or witnesses appearing against him, he was of course discharged.

# EXECUTION.

imprisoned for conscience' sake in Queen Mary's persecution of the Church, is said to have thus written to a friend: "A prisoner for Christ! What is this for a poor worm? Such honor have not all his saints. Both the degrees which I took in the University, have not set me so high as the honor of becoming a prisoner of the Lord."

# PERSECUTIONS, END OF.

long after the murders at Bethlehem, his distemper, as Josephus informs us, daily increased in an unheard-of manner. He had a lingering and wasting fever, and grievous ulcers in his entrails and bowels: a violent colic, and 609 insatiable appetite; a venomous swelling in his feet; convulsions in his nerves; a perpetual asthma, and offensive breath; rottenness in his joints and other members; accompanied with prodigious itchings, crawling worms, and intolerable smell: so that he was a perfect hospital of incurable distempers.

A coal merchant at Brigg, in Lincolnshire, had occasion to send a boat to Barton, with a cargo of coals, and ordered one of his men to take charge of it. As the boat was leaving the wharf, a person civilly accosted the man, asking where he was going. "I am going to hell," said he, with an oath. Awful to relate, he died suddenly, before he reached Barton!

A person of considerable property and eminence in the city of N—, who lived in habits of impiety and profaneness, was seized by an indisposition, which induced him to call a medical gentleman; but being disappointed for a time, by his absence from home, he fell into a violent agitation, which was vented in horrid imprecations. As soon as the medical gentleman arrived, he was saluted with a volley of oaths. The violence of his agitation broke a blood-vessel; so that oaths and blood continued to flow from his mouth, till he could speak no longer; and in this situation he expired.

"Bonaparte," says Sir Robert Wilson, "having carried the town of Jaffa by assault, many of the garrison were put to the sword, but the greater part flying into the Mosques, and imploring mercy from their pursuers, were granted their lives. Three days afterwards, Bonaparte, who had expressed much resentment at the compassion manifested by his troops, and determined to relieve himself from the maintenance and care of 3500 prisoners, ordered them to be marched to a rising ground near Jaffa, where a division of French infantry formed against them. When the Turks had entered into their fatal alignment, and the mournful preparations were completed, the signal gun fired. Volleys of musquetry and grape instantly played against them, and Bonaparte, who had been regarding the scene through a telescope, when he saw the smoke ascending, could not contain his joy.

359. Because they often Die in the very act of Sin.

A man who ridiculed the idea that God makes a difference in his providence between those who yield visible obedience to his laws and those who do not, had been engaged, on a certain Sabbath, in gathering his crops into his barn. The next week he had occasion to take fire out into his field in order to burn some brush. He left it, as he supposed, safely, and went in to dinner. The wind took the fire and carried it into his barn-yard, which was filled with combustibles, and, before he was aware of it, the flames were bursting out of his barn. He arose in amazement, saw that all was lost, and fixing his eyes on the curling flames, stood speechless. Then, pointing to the rising column of fire, he said, with a solemn emphasis, "That is the finger of God."