六月廿六日

你也變爲軟弱像我們一樣嗎？（賽14：10）

言行相違的、嘴唇上相信的人，當他赤裸裸地呈露在神的面前時，他會遭受什麽樣的境遇呢？他能當得起：“你這可咒詛的人，離開我去吧。你曾離我行淫，我必永遠掩面不見你，也不憐憫你。”當末後的大日來到，在衆聖徒環視之下，這種人雖然自慚形穢，羞赧得面紅耳赤，但是他要躲藏到那裏去呢？還能隱諱，還能戴假面具嗎？當他看到那些褻瀆神的、不相信的罪人們從刑火中指著他說：“就是他，他要在地獄中傳福音嗎？”另一位說：“就是他，他曾因我咒駡人而責備我，但他自己却是一位假冒爲善的人。”又一位說：‘啊哈！這裏來了一位常唱詩、會禱告、循規蹈矩的正人君子，他常作禮拜，常誇耀自己一定會得永生。原來他也在這裏！“撒但的使者們不再大費心機和氣力了，那時他們可以毫不費力地把他們拖到滅亡中。本仁用沉重而莊嚴的詩筆描寫到地獄裏去的岔路，七個魔鬼用九條繩子拉著一個可憐的人離開他所承認、所走的天路，幷把他從後門拉到地獄裏。

嘴裏相信的人哪！要留意通到地獄裏去的岔路！“要察看你自己是否還有信！”要仔細看看你的情形，看你是否還在基督裏面。世上最容易的事，莫過于一個人在裁判自己的時候過于寬大輕約了，但是在這裏我們要公正，幷且要真實。對別人要公正，對于自己也要嚴格。要記得若你不在磐石上建築的話，當你的房子倒塌的時候，必然倒塌得很大。願神賜你誠實、恒心和堅定，幷願你在邪惡的日子不偏離正路。

June 26

"Art thou become like unto us?" -- Isaiah 14:10

What must be the apostate professor's doom when his naked soul appears before God? How will he bear that voice, "Depart, ye cursed; thou hast rejected me, and I reject thee; thou hast played the harlot, and departed from Me: I also have banished thee for ever from my presence, and will not have mercy upon thee." What will be this wretch's shame at the last great day when, before assembled multitudes, the apostate shall be unmasked? See the profane, and sinners who never professed religion, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at him. "There he is," says one, "will he preach the gospel in hell?" "There he is," says another, "he rebuked me for cursing, and was a hypocrite himself!" "Aha!" says another, "here comes a psalm-singing Methodist--one who was always at his meeting; he is the man who boasted of his being sure of everlasting life; and here he is!" No greater eagerness will ever be seen among Satanic tormentors, than in that day when devils drag the hypocrite's soul down to perdition. Bunyan pictures this with massive but awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the back-way to hell. Seven devils bound the wretch with nine cords, and dragged him from the road to heaven, in which he had professed to walk, and thrust him through the back-door into hell. Mind that back-way to hell, professors! "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith." Look well to your state; see whether you be in Christ or not. It is the easiest thing in the world to give a lenient verdict when oneself is to be tried; but O, be just and true here. Be just to all, but be rigorous to yourself. Remember if it be not a rock on which you build, when the house shall fall, great will be the fall of it. O may the Lord give you sincerity, constancy, and firmness; and in no day, however evil, may you be led to turn aside.