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of His weakness and His necessities, but because He saw, He felt, the
weakness of your natures to resist the temptations of the enemy upon
the very points where you are now overcome. He knew that you would
be indifferent in regard to your dangers and would not feel your need
of prayer. It was on our account that He poured out His prayers to His
Father with strong cries and tears. It was to save us from the very pride
and love of vanity and pleasure which we now indulge, and which
crowds out the love of Jesus, that those tears were shed and that our
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Saviour’s visage was marred with sorrow and anguish more than any
of the sons of men.
Will you, young friends, arise and shake off this dreadful indif-
ference and stupor which has conformed you to the world? Will you
heed the voice of warning which tells you that destruction lies in the
path of those who are at ease in this hour of danger? God’s patience
will not always wait for you, poor, trifling souls. He who holds our
destinies in His hands will not always be trifled with. Jesus declares
to us that there is a greater sin than that which caused the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is the sin of those who have the great
light of truth in these days and who are not moved to repentance. It
is the sin of rejecting the light of the most solemn message of mercy
to the world. It is the sin of those who see Jesus in the wilderness of
temptation, bowed down as with mortal agony because of the sins of
the world, and yet are not moved to thorough repentance. He fasted
nearly six weeks to overcome, in behalf of men, the indulgence of
appetite and vanity, and the desire for display and worldly honor. He
has shown them how they may overcome on their own account as He
overcame; but it is not pleasant to their natures to endure conflict and
reproach, derision and shame, for His dear sake. It is not agreeable to
deny self and to be ever seeking to do good to others. It is not pleasant
to overcome as Christ overcame, so they turn from the pattern which
is plainly given them to copy and refuse to imitate the example that
the Saviour came from the heavenly courts to leave them.
It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of
judgment than for those who have had the privileges and the great light
which shines in our day, but who have neglected to follow the light
and to give their hearts fully to God.
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