Ho, ye unbelieving men, — ye dishonest men, — ye profane men, — ye lewd men and women, — ye slaves of lust and appetite, — ye scoffers at the truth of God, — How can ye escape the damnation of hell. (Matthew 23:33.) Ye men of business, — ye whose souls are absorbed with the pursuit of gain, — ye people of wealth without riches toward God, — ye passengers on the voyage of life, without prayer, without Church relations, without concern for your immortal good, your God, or the eternity before you, — hear: “Hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure, and your glory, and your multitude, and your pomp, and your rejoicing, shall descend into it!” (Isaiah 5:14.) Ye almost Christians, lingering these many years on the margin of the Kingdom, looking in through the gates, but never quite ready to enter them, intending but never performing, often wishing but still postponing, hoping but without right to hope, — the appeal is to you: “How shall ye escape if ye neglect so great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:2-4.) And ye who call yourselves Christians but have forgotten your covenant promises, — ye Terahs and Lot’s wives, who have started out of the place of sin and death but hesitate halfway, and stay to look back, — ye baptized Elymases, and Judases, and Balaams, who, through covetousness and feigned words make merchandise of the grace of God, — see ye not that “your judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and your damnation slumbereth not!” (2 Peter 2:3) And if there be any one oblivious or indifferent toward these great matters, asleep amidst the dashing waves of coming retribution, — the message is to you: “What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God shall think upon thee, that thou perish not!” (Jonah 1:6.) For if any one be not found written in the Book of Life, he must be swallowed up by the Lake of Fire".
Joseph August Seiss, The Apocalypse, Lectures on The Book of Revelation. Lecture Forty-Seven. Two last pages of Lecture.
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