[b]For a moment of sinful pleasure[/b]

(Lewis Bayly, "The Practice of Piety" 1611)

O the madness of man, that for a moment of
sinful pleasure will hazard the loss of an eternal
weight of glory!

Better it is to go sickly with Lazarus to heaven;
than full of mirth and pleasure, with the rich man
to hell. Better it is to mourn for a time on earth,
than to be tormented forever with devils.

Without Christ you are but . . .
a slave of sin,
death's vassal,
the food of worms,
whose thoughts are vain,
whose deeds are vile,
whose pleasures have scarcely a beginning,
whose miseries never know an end.

What wise man would incur these hellish torments,
though he might, by living in sin, purchase to himself
for a time the empire of Augustus, the riches of Croesus,
the pleasures of Solomon, the voluptuous fare and fine
apparel of the rich man? For what should it avail a man,
as our Savior says--to win the whole world for a time,
and then to lose his soul in hell forever?

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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

Greg,

So many of us have become desensitized to eternity. We've never fasted and prayed and travailed to gain a revelation of hell. And those of us that [i]have[/i] had revelations of the pit, through time we've cooled down and let the knowledge of hell lose its teeth. I speak on my own behalf.

If Christians would meditate on [i]the eternal perspectives of being tortured in a flame of fire, [/i] we would walk different walks. What is a flicker of porn, what is a drink of alcohol, what is a temporary marijuana high compared to everlasting torture? O that our hazed-over eyes
would blink in sudden awareness of a cosmic fire that shall never be quenched.

One thing I love about the Puritans, they were always preaching, teaching, gazing, medtating, and expounding eternity. We need to go back to these fearful ways. We need holy preachers that are not afraid to take their congregations by the hand and lead them to the threshold of eternity and open the door.

Brother Paul

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Paul Frederick West