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From Eternity Past
of an earthly parent to forgive a wayward son. “Return unto Me, and I
will return unto you.”
Malachi 3:7
. But if one persistently refuses that
tender love, he will at last be left in darkness. The heart that has long
slighted God’s mercy becomes hardened in sin, no longer susceptible
to the influence of the grace of God. It will be more tolerable in the
day of judgment for the cities of the plain than for those who have
known the love of Christ and yet have turned away to the pleasure
of sin. In the books of heaven there is a record kept of the impieties
of nations, of families, of individuals. Calls to repentance, offers of
pardon may be given; yet a time will come when the account will be
full. The soul’s decision has been made. By his own choice, man’s
destiny has been fixed. Then the signal will be given for judgment to
be executed.
Another Sodom
In the religious world today God’s mercy has been trifled with.
Multitudes make void the law, “teaching for doctrines the command-
ments of men.”
Matthew 15:9
. Infidelity prevails in many churches,
not infidelity in its broadest sense—an open denial of the Bible—but
an infidelity undermining faith in the Bible as a revelation from God.
Vital piety has given place to hollow formalism. As the result, apostasy
and sensualism prevail. Christ declared, “As it was in the days of Lot...
. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”
Luke 17:28, 30
. The world is fast becoming ripe for destruction.
Said our Saviour: “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your
hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of
this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall
it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth”—all
whose interests are centered in this world. “Watch ye therefore, and
pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these
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things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
Luke 21:34-36
.
Before the destruction of Sodom, God sent a message to Lot,
“Escape for thy life.” The same voice of warning was heard before the
destruction of Jerusalem: “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed
with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let