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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
the moral standing of the community in which he was to make his
home.
The dwellers in Sodom were corrupt; vile conversation greeted his
ears daily, and his righteous soul was vexed by the violence and crime
he was powerless to prevent. His children were becoming like these
wicked people, for association with them had perverted their morals.
Taking all these things into consideration, the worldly riches he had
gained seemed small and not worth the price he had paid for them.
His family connections were extensive, his children having married
among the Sodomites.
The Lord’s anger was finally kindled against the wicked inhabitants
of the city, and angels of God visited Sodom to bring forth Lot, that he
should not perish in the overthrow of the city. They bade Lot bring his
family, his wife, and the sons and daughters who married in wicked
Sodom, and told him to flee from the place. “For,” said the angels,
“we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great
before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it.”
And Lot went out and entreated his children. He repeated the words
of the angel: “Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy
this city.” But he seemed unto his sons-in-law as one who mocked;
for they had lived so long in Sodom that they had become partakers
of the sins of the people. And the daughters were influenced by their
husbands to believe that their father was mad. They were well enough
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off where they were. They were rich and had great possessions; and
they could not believe it possible that beautiful Sodom, a rich and
fertile country, would be destroyed by the wrath of a sin-avenging
God.
Lot returned sorrowfully to the angels and repeated the story of his
failure. Then the angels commanded him to arise, and take his wife
and the two daughters who were yet in his house, and leave the city.
But Lot was sad; the thought of leaving his children and his wife, for
she refused to go without them, almost broke his heart. They would
all have perished in the terrible ruin of Sodom, had not the Lord, in
His great mercy, sent His angels to the rescue.
Lot was paralyzed by the great calamity about to occur; he was
stupefied with grief at the thought of leaving all he held dear on earth.
But as he lingered, the angels of God laid hold upon his hand, and the
hands of his wife and two daughters, and brought them out of the city,