# judgment Day



## Blueridge Believer (Jan 8, 2008)

Now you enjoy the means of grace, as the preaching of his word, prayer, and sacraments; and
God has sent his ministers out into the fields and highways, to invite, to woo you to come in; but
they are tiresome to thee, thou hadst rather be at thy pleasures: ere long, my brethren, they will be
over, and you will be no more troubled with them; but then thou wouldst give ten thousand worlds
for one moment of that merciful time of grace which thou hast abused; then you will cry for a drop
of that precious blood which now you trample under your feet; then you will wish for one more
offer of mercy, for Christ and his free grace to be offered to you again; but your crying will be in
vain: for as you would not repent here, God will not give you an opportunity to repent hereafter:
if you would not in Christ's time, you shall not in your own. In what a dreadful condition will you
then be? What horror and astonishment will possess your souls? Then all thy lies and oaths, thy
scoffs and jeers at the people of God, all thy filthy and unclean thoughts and actions, thy mispent
time in balls, plays, and assemblies, thy spending whole evenings at cards, dice, and masquerades,
thy frequenting of taverns and alehouses, thy worldliness, covetousness, and thy uncharitableness,
will be brought at once to thy remembrance, and at once charged upon thy guilty soul. And how
can you bear the thoughts of these things? Indeed I am full of compassion towards you, to think
that this should be the portion of any who now hear me. These are truths, though awful ones; my
brethren, these are the truths of the gospel; and if there was not a necessity for thus speaking, I
would willingly forbear: for it is no pleasing subject to me, any more than it is to you; but it is my
duty to show you the dreadful consequences of continuing in sin. I am only now acting the part of
a skillful surgeon, that searches a wound before he heals it: I would show you your danger first,
that deliverance may be the more readily accepted by you.
Consider, that however you may be for putting the evil day away from you, and are now striving
to hide your sins, at the day of judgment there shall be a full discovery of all; hidden things on that
day shall be brought to light; and after all thy sins have been revealed to the whole world, then you
must depart into everlasting fire in hell, which will not be quenched night and day; it will be without
intermission, without end. O then, what stupidity and senselessness hath possessed your hearts,
that you are not frighted from your sins. The fear of Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace, made men do
any thing to avoid it; and shall not an everlasting fire make men, make you, do any thing to avoid
it?

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (A Penitent Heart, the Best New years Gift).




(A Puritan Prayer)

O Lord God,
May holiness be the atmosphere in which 
I live. Give me abhorrence of all evil, as 
a vile monster that . . .
defies Your law, 
casts off Your yoke, 
defiles my nature, 
spreads misery. 

Teach me to look to Jesus on His cross, so I will know 
sin's loathsomeness in Your sight. Show me the shame, 
the agony, the bruises of Your adorable Son, that I may 
read my boundless guilt in the boundless price. May I . . .
discern the deadly viper in its real malignity,
tear it with holy indignation from my bosom,
resolutely turn from its every snare, and
refuse to hold polluting dalliance with it. 

Blessed Lord Jesus, at Your cross may I be taught . . .
the awful miseries from which I am saved,
ponder what the word 'lost' implies,
see the fires of eternal destruction.
Then may I cling more closely to Your adorable
self, and detest sin as strongly as Your love to 
me is strong.


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