Nov 11
13
Sitting side by side with corpses?
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
“Alive or Dead- Which?” No. 755. 1 John 5:12.
The moralist says, “Oh! I have always lived a
chaste, upright, moral life. I have been attentive
to religious duties….” I tell you, unbelieving
moralist, what you are- you are a corpse well
washed and decently laid out, daintily robed
in fair white linen, sprinkled plenteously with
sweet perfumes, and wrapped in myrrh, and
cassia, and aloes, with flowers wreathed about
your brow, and your bosom bedecked by the
hand of affection with sweetly blushing roses.
But you have no spiritual life, and therefore
your destiny is the grave, corruption is your
heritage, and your place of abode is fixed,
“where their worm dies not, and the fire not
quenched.” For, “He that believes not shall
be damned.”
With all your excellencies and moralities,
with all your baptisms and his sacraments,
“He that believes not shall be damned.”
There is no middle place, no specially
reserved and superior abodes for these
noble and virtuous unbelievers.
If they have not believed, they shall be
bound up in bundles with the rest, for God
has appointed to all unbelievers their portion
with liars, and thieves, and whoremongers,
and drunkards, and idolaters.
Beware, you unbelievers, for your unbelief
will be the most condemning evidence against
you at the great judgment day.
Some of you are spiritually dead. Is not this
terrible? Oh, if by some touch of an angel’s
wand, our bodies should all become as our
souls are, how many corpses would fill these
aisles, and crowd these pews! Oh! what a
sight this place would be! Those of us who
are alive would hasten to gather up our things
and say, “Let us be gone! How can we
sit side by side with corpses?”