17 February 2013

The mother of Hell

Your weekly dose of Spurgeon
The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  The following excerpt is from The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, volume 18, sermon number 1,058, "No quarter."
"Sin always hunts in packs. See one of these wolves, and you may be certain that a countless company will follow at its heels."

My brethren, what has sin done for us? Can it point to any advantage or blessing with which it has enriched us?

Look down the roll of history and see if sin be not man’s worst enemy. Whose hot breath blasted Eden, withered all its bowers of bliss, and caused the earth to become barren, so that without labour even unto sweat she will not yield bread for our sustenance! Mark well yon innumerable graves which cover every plain with hillocks. Who slew all these? By what gate came death into the world? Was not sin the janitor to open the portal?

Hearken at this moment to the shouts of war which in every age of the world’s history have created a horrible din of groans of dying men, and shrieks of flying women. Who first dipped yon flag in blood, and made the air pestilent with carnage? And yonder despotic throne which has crushed down the multitude and made the lives of many bitter with hard bondage, who laid its dark foundations and cemented it with blood? Whence came war with its carnage, and tyranny with its sufferings? Whence, indeed, but from the sins and lusts of men?

All over the world if there be hemlock in the furrow, and thistles on the ridge, sin’s hand has sown them broadcast. Sin turned the apples of Sodom to ashes, and the grapes of Gomorrah to gall. The trail of this serpent, with its horrid slime, has obliterated the footsteps of joy. Before the march of sin I see the garden of the Lord, and behind it a desert and a charnel.

Stay ye awhile. Nay, start not, but come with me. Look down into the ghastly gloom of Tophet, that region abhorred, where dwell the finally impenitent, who died with unforgiven sins upon their heads. Can you bear to hear their groans and moans of anguish? We will not attempt to describe the sufferings of spirits driven from their God, eternally banished from all hope and peace; but we will ask you, O son of man, who digged yon pit, and cast men into it? Who provides the fuel for that terrible flame, and whence getteth the worm that dieth not its tooth which never blunts? Sin has done it all.

Sin, the mother of hell, the fire-fountain to which we may trace each burning stream. O Sin, it is not meet that any heir from heaven, redeemed from hell, should make friends with thee. Shall we fondle the adder, or press the deadly cobra to our bosom? If it had not been for the grace of God our sins would have shut us up in hell already, and even now they seek to drag us there; therefore, let us take these enemies of our souls and slay them—let not one escape.




3 comments:

donsands said...

Hallelujah! What a gift from our sovereign Lord are the words from His chosen preachers mouth and heart.
And God made a way so that we might have these words written and spoken so long ago for us now in a manner Charles Haddon would have dreamed.

Thanks for these magnificient words of truth, that do cause a heaviness, and yet also cause my heart to burn within me.

Thank You Father for our older brother Charles, whom you elected to preach and teach Your truth in a way that was unique. Amen.

dora said...

Hello,

I have never commented on this site before, even though I have visited for about 5 years.

But this article was not one to ignore, and did cause me to weep somewhat.

How gracious God is, and how terrible is sin.

We really cannot understand how much God hates sin, maybe that is why we toy with it as we do.

May we ask God for yet a greater hatred of sin, and be holy for He is holy.

God bless.

donsands said...

And Dora, when we see the ugliness of sin, our being made righteous and forgiven in Jesus' death and ressurection are far more glorious and splendid, and our love and joy is fuller and fuller.

Thanks for commenting my sister.