Habits soon become a second nature; to form new ones is hard work; but those
formed in youth remain in old age. CC121

In other things “familiarity breeds contempt,” but in the things of God familiarity
breeds adoration. The man who does not read his Bible much is the man who has a
scant esteem of it; but he that studies it both day and night is the very man who will
be impressed by its infinitude of meaning, till he will be ready to cry, like Jerome, “I
adore the infinity of Scripture.” 1649.151

One of these days you may be unable to get rid of those habits which you are now
forming. At first, the net of habit is made of cobweb; you can soon break it through.
By-and-by it is made of twine; soon it will be made of rope; and last of all it will be
strong as steel, and then you will be fatally ensnared. 3193.189

Seek not happiness first; seek Christ first, and happiness shall come after. 196.255
Nothing beneath the skies, and nothing above the skies, can make any man happy
apart from God, search as you will. Apart from God you may make a hell, but you
cannot make a heaven, do what you please. 1305.419

Unless you can tell why you are happy you will not long be happy. 1719.254

People who are very happy, especially those who are very happy in the Lord, are not
apt either to give offence or to take offence. 2405.133

Be happy. If the present be dreary, it will soon be over. Oh, but a little while, and we
shall be transferred from these seats below to the thrones above! We shall go from
the place of aching brows to the place where they all wear crowns, from the place of
weary hands to where they bear the palm branch of victory, from the place of mistake
and error and sin, and consequent grief, to the place where they are without fault
before the throne of God, for they have washed their robes, and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb. 2405.142

Man sins although he stands on the brink of the grave. It is not enough that the
halter is about the traitor’s neck, he commits fresh treasons while standing beneath
the gallows; he knows that his doom is recorded, and that his life is only a reprieve,
and yet he insults the judge. 699.375

He hates God, indeed, who hates him so much that he will even dwell for ever in hell
fire sooner than be forgiven by him and saved through the blood of his Son. Man
shows his deadly enmity against God to the fullest extent when he will destroy
himself to indulge it. 1213.47

The mind that looks after the flesh, the carnal mind, is a mass of downright,
undiluted enmity to the Most High God. Such a mind is opposed, not merely to the
things of God, the laws of God, and the truth of God, but to God himself. The mind
which is under the dominion of the flesh cannot endure the being of God: his
character is the object of its hate; nay, such a mind is hate itself towards God. 1878.14

I think an angel might well shiver with horror if, for the first time, he heard that men
had struck the face of his Lord. It was but his human face, it is true; but therein they
struck at all of Deity that they could reach. It was man smiting God in the face. 2825.161

At any rate, that is your choice at this present moment; and if a man will show his
objection to Christ to so great an extent that he would himself be cast into hell sooner
than let Jesus save him, you may depend upon it that there dwells in his heart
sufficient enmity to Christ to hang him up again upon the gibbet if he were here once
more. Christ would be hanged to-morrow if he came here among unregenerate
hearts; ay, by the very people that hang their ivory crosses about their necks, and put
them on their prayer-books, and fix them on their walls. 3123.603

From the Garden of Eden right on until now man has been an enemy of God; and
although God has constantly returned good for evil, and is still the God of love and
condescension, yet has man continued to fight against him, and there still is war
between heaven and earth. Otherwise, there would be no need for ambassadors
between God and men. This would be proof enough that a state of war prevails. 3148.277

When a congregation expects nothing, it generally finds nothing even in the best of
preachers; but when they are prepared to make much of what they hear, they usually
get what they came for. AM355

But, we add, men ought not to hear without preparation. Which, think you, needs the
most preparation, the sower or the ground? 420.583

Those who are hearers only are wasters of the word. What poor creatures hearers
are, for they have long ears and no hands! Ye have heard of him who one day was
discoursing eloquently of philosophy to a crowd, who greatly applauded him. He
thought he had made many disciples, but suddenly the market-bell rang, and not
a single person remained. Gain was to be made, and in their opinion no philosophy
could be compared to personal profit. They were hearers until the market-bell rang,
and then, as they had been hearers only, they quitted the hearing also. I fear it is so
with our preachings: if the devil rings the bell for sin, for pleasure, for worldly
amusement, or evil gain, our admirers quit us right speedily. The voice of the world
drowns the voice of the word. 1847.359

We must all learn to hear what we do not like. The question is not, “Is it pleasant?”
but, “Is it true?” 2130.107

Not everything that I say, or that any minister says, is God’s Word. Hence you should
take heed to separate between what is God’s and what is our’s. But wherein we speak
according to Holy Scripture, it is as much God’s Word as if God himself spoke. 3357.272

True religion is heart-work. We may wash the outside of the cup and the platter as
long as we please, but if the inward parts be filthy, we are filthy altogether in the
sight of God, for our hearts are more truly ourselves than our hands are; the very life
of our being lies in the inner nature, and hence the imperative need of purity within. ME373

An ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head learning. ME576

It is a sad thing when the heart is cold with a good matter, and worse when it is
warm with a bad matter, but incomparably well when a warm heart and a good
matter meet together. TD45:1

Surely the heart is a chameleon. TD78:37

The heart is the mainspring of the man, and if it be not in order, the entire nature is
thrown out of gear. TD95:10

You have seen the great reservoirs provided by our water companies, from which the
water which is to supply hundreds of streets and thousands of houses is kept. Now,
the heart is just the reservoir of man, and our life is allowed to flow in its proper
season. That life may flow through different pipes—the mouth, the hand, the eye; but
still all the issues of hand, of eye, of lip, derive their source from the great fountain
and central reservoir, the heart; and hence there is no difficulty in showing the great
necessity that exists for keeping this reservoir, the heart, in a proper state and
condition, since otherwise that which flows through the pipes must be tainted and
corrupt. 179.114

Æsop, when his master ordered him to provide nothing for a feast but the best things
in the market, brought him nothing but tongues, and when the next day he ordered
him to buy nothing but the worst things in the market, still brought nothing but
tongues; and I would venture to correct or spiritualise the story, by exchanging
hearts for tongues, for there is nothing better in the world than hearts renewed, and
nothing worse than hearts unregenerate. 1129.482

He who can feel his insensibility is not insensible. Those who mourn that their heart
is a heart of stone, if they were to look calmly at the matter might perceive that it is
not all stone, or else there would not be a mourning because of hardness. 1983.518

Rest assured, dear friends, that where your pleasure is, there your heart is. 2710.29

Your heart is breaking, you say, with your troubles. It needs more breaking; for, if it
was broken, the trouble would not break it. Where our selfishness and our self-will
come in, there our sorrows begin. What is wanted is not the removal of trouble, but
the conquest of self. 2739.378

I know not what there may be in our heart—a very pandemonium, a little hell—a
great hell in a little heart. 3486.546

Thy head may be crowned with thorny troubles now, but it shall wear a starry crown
ere long; thy hand may be filled with cares—it shall sweep the strings of the harp of
heaven soon. ME268

In heaven they marry not, but are as the angels of God; yet there is this one
marvellous exception to the rule, for in heaven Christ and His Church shall celebrate
their joyous nuptials. This affinity as it is more lasting, so it is more near than
earthly wedlock. Let the love of husband be never so pure and fervent, it is but a
faint picture of the flame which burns in the heart of Jesus. ME408

The damnation of sinners shall not mar the happiness of saints. TD58:10

In the beatific vision it is Christ whom they see; and further, it is his face which they
behold. They shall not see the skirts of his robe as Moses saw the back parts of
Jehovah; they shall not be satisfied to touch the hem of his garment, or to sit far
down at his feet where they can only see his sandals, but they “shall see his face;” by
which I understand two things: first, that they shall literally and physically, with
their risen bodies, actually look into the face of Jesus; and secondly, that spiritually
their mental faculties shall be enlarged, so that they shall be enabled to look into the
very heart, and soul, and character of Christ, so as to understand him, his work, his
love, his all in all, as they never understood him before. 824.437

It is very little that we can know of the future state, but we may be quite sure that
we know as much as is good for us. We ought to be as content with that which is not
revealed as with that which is. If God wills us not to know, we ought to be satisfied
not to know. Depend on it, he has told us all about heaven that is necessary to bring
us there; and if he had revealed more, it would have served rather for the
gratification of our curiosity than for the increase of our grace. 887.473

Our spiritual manhood in heaven will discard many things which we now count
precious, as a full-grown man discards the treasures of his childhood. 1002.411

There cannot be heaven without Christ. He is the sum total of bliss; the fountain
from which heaven flows, the element of which heaven is composed. Christ is heaven
and heaven is Christ. 1136.571

There may not be so many as latitudinarianism imagines, but there are certainly
more than bigotry conceives. 1195.544

Sudden glory does not startle the inhabitants of heaven as sudden death startles the
dwellers upon earth. 1316.542

Heaven at any price is well secured. 1373.512

What is heaven? It is the place which his love suggested, which his genius invented,
which his bounty provided, which his royalty has adorned, which his wisdom has
prepared, which he himself glorifies; in that heaven you are to be with him for ever. 1374.527

I find all my fellow Christians, both men and women, are resolved that they will sing
the loudest to the praise of grace divine. This shall be heaven’s only contest. There
shall be a grand contention among the birds of paradise which shall sing most
sweetly of free grace and dying love. 1577.36

No person who defiles, no fallen spirit, or sinful man can enter. And as no person, so
no tendency, leaning, inclination, or will to sin can gain admission. No wish, no
desire, no hunger towards that which is unclean shall ever be found in the perfect
city of God. Nor even a thought of evil can be conceived there, much less a sinful act
performed. Nothing shall ever be done within those gates of pearl contrary to perfect
law, nor anything imagined in opposition to spotless holiness. Consider such purity,
and wonder at it: the term “anything that defileth” includes even an idea, a memory,
a thought of evil. Thoughts that flit through the mind as birds through the air that
never roost or build a nest—even such shall never glance across the skies of the new
creation. It is altogether perfect! And, mark well, that no untruth can enter—
“neither whatsoever maketh a lie.” Nothing can enter heaven which is not real;
nothing erroneous, mistaken, conceited, hollow, professional, pretentious, unsubstantial, can be smuggled through the gates. Only truth can dwell with the God of
truth. 1590.175

“Heaven is a state,” says somebody. Yes, certainly, it is a state; but it is a place too,
and in the future it will be more distinctly a place. 1741.525

There is a crown in heaven that nobody’s head can wear but mine, a harp that
nobody’s hand can play but mine, and a mansion that no man may enter but myself
alone. I believe the same of each of you, my brothers and sisters, who are in Christ
Jesus. 2039.463

If you have ever stood in the middle of a hall of mirrors, you have seen yourself
repeated on all sides; even so shall heaven be full of lovely reflections of him who is
altogether lovely; for every blood-washed one shall wear the likeness of the Lord from
heaven. The Father can never have too much of his dear Son. He would have him live
in ten thousand times ten thousand beloved ones; and as this, also, would be your
highest joy, you have in this desire a wonderful bond of union between you and the
Father. 2117.659

Earthly gold is dull, you cannot see into it. If you could, you would see the tears of the
oppressed and sometimes the blood of crushed-down men in it; but the gold of heaven
is good, and you can see into it, as you could into a sea of glass. I think I am walking
there. I hardly know myself, and there I meet one and another of you whom I know
here, and we go together down that golden street, and look in at the many mansions,
whence come out many to welcome us; and we thread our way into the centre. There
is no temple there, no tabernacle of worship there; but we get into the centre, and we
stand upon the glassy sea, into which all the streets seem to run; and as we look
around, we see angels and elders bowing there before the throne of the infinite
majesty, and we are there ourselves, and we bow with them; and when we lift up our
eyes to that light we sing, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in
his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him
be glory and dominion for ever and ever.” 2419.309

You remember the story of the three wonders in heaven. The first wonder was, that
we should see so many there we did not expect to see there; the second was, that we
should miss so many we did expect to see there; but the third wonder would be the
greatest wonder of all,—to see ourselves there. 2763.44

Do you not think that Abel must have felt very strange when he went to heaven?
How startled the angels must have been when they saw the first soul redeemed by
blood in glory alone! Methinks they must have hushed their songs awhile to ask all
about him. 3294.141

Such is the happiness we are looking forward to—the day-break; that we shall serve
God day and night in his temple without any weariness, that we shall serve him
without any sin, that we shall adore him without any wandering thoughts, that we
shall be dedicated to him without anything that can stir the jealousy of his holy
mind. 3323.483

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the
things which God hath prepared for them that love him; but he hath revealed them
unto us by his Spirit,” and, as far as we understand that revelation we are taught by
it that we shall enter into a state of complete rest and perfect peace; a state of holy
delight, and of serene and blissful activity; a state of perfect praise; a state of
satisfaction; a state, probably, of progress, but still of completeness at every inch of
the road; a state in which we shall be as happy as we are capable of being, every
vessel, little or great, being filled to the brim. We shall be supremely blessed, for at
the right hand of God there are pleasures for ever more. 1466.186

At present the saints who are with Jesus are without their bodies, and are pure
spirits; their humanity is in that respect maimed; only half their manhood is with
Jesus; yet even for that half of the manhood to be with Christ is far better than for
the whole of their being to be here in the best possible condition. 1136.574

I do not know that in heaven they know all things—that must be for the Omniscient
only—but they know all they need or really want to know; they are satisfied there. 3499.75

I remember standing in the pulpit, one sultry summer’s afternoon, preaching of the
joys of heaven, and there was one woman’s eye, that specially caught mine as I was
preaching. I knew not why it was, but it seemed to fascinate me; and as I spoke of
heaven, she seemed to drink in every word, and her eyes flashed back again the
thoughts I uttered. She seemed to lead me on to speak more and more of the streets
of gold and the gates of pearl; till, suddenly her eyes appeared to me to be too fixed;
and at last it had struck me that, while I had been talking of heaven, she had gone
there. I paused and asked if someone in the pew would kindly see whether the friend
sitting there was not dead; and, in a moment, her husband said, “She is dead, sir.” I
had known her long as a consistent Christian woman; and, as I stood there, I half
wished that I could have changed places with her. There was not a sigh, not a tear;
she seemed to drink in the thoughts of heaven, and then straightway to go and enjoy
it. 3031.139

So far as I am personally concerned, I would like to have a similar experience to that
of good Dr. Beaumont, who was preaching the Word on earth, and just as he finished
uttering a sentence of his sermon was singing the praises of God in heaven; or an
experience like that of another minister, Brother Flood, whom I knew. He had just
given out that verse,—

“Father, I long, I faint to see
The place of thine abode;
I’d leave thy earthly courts
and flee
Up to thy seat, my God;”—

when he fell back, for his desire was granted, and he had gone from the earthly
courts of the Lord’s house up to the seat of God on high. 3216.463

The rougher the voyage the more the mariners long for port, and heaven becomes
more and more “a desired haven,” as our trials multiply. TD107:30

My horse invariably comes home in less time than he makes the journey out. He
pulls the carriage with a hearty good will when his face is towards home. Should not
I also both suffer and labour the more joyously because my way lies towards heaven,
and I am on pilgrimage to my Father’s house, my soul’s dear home and resting place? FA108

What, carry your sins into heaven? Carry hell into heaven! Man, hast thou any
reason left in thee to expect God to have it so? 1278.92

It is a mercy that unrenewed men cannot enter heaven; if they could, heaven would
not last as heaven for even five minutes. There would be another hell created if
unrenewed men could walk among the palms and harps of the glorified. You may do
what you like with a man, but as long as he is unclean he communicates his
defilement wherever he may lay his hand. 2495.594

If ungodly people went there in the same state as they are in here, heaven would
become a sort of ante-chamber of hell, a respectable place of damnation; but that can
never be the case. 2705.593

Carnal spirits, greedy, envious spirits—what would they do in heaven? If they were
in the place called heaven, they could not be in the state called heaven, and heaven
is more a state than a place. 3538.544

An old Scotchman was asked whether he expected to get to heaven. “Why, man, I live
there,” was his quaint reply. Let us all live in those spiritual things which are the
essential features of heaven. Often go there, before you go to stay there. It was said
of an old Puritan, that heaven was in him before he was in heaven. That is necessary
for all of us; we must have heaven in us before we get into heaven. If we do not get to
heaven before we die, we shall never get there afterwards. BA124

If you were in heaven without a new heart and a right spirit, you would be glad
enough to get out of it; for heaven, unless a man is heavenly himself, would be worse
than hell. 110.30

Ah, dear hearer! heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. If you do not learn
heaven’s language on earth you cannot learn it in the world to come. 746.224

O brethren, we do not want merely to go to heaven, but we desire to enjoy a heaven
on the road to heaven. 1152.34

As you come nearer heaven ought you not to be more heavenly? 1179.356

They need no angels to instruct them in the manners and customs of the upper world,
for even while they sojourned on earth their conversation was in heaven. They are
not waiting till they have learned the song, but they know it already, for grace is the
rehearsal of glory. 1316.542

Above all, you must get heaven into your own heart, for you will never have your
heart in heaven till you have heaven in your heart. 2292.45

Whatever the saints are in heaven, they began to be on earth. There is, no doubt, a
perfection of character in the world to come; but the character must be formed here.
In the next world there will be no real change; where the tree falls, there it will lie;
he that is filthy will be filthy still, he that is holy will be holy still. 2324.421

“Ah,” says one, “I expect to have my happiness in another world.” So do I, but I hope
to have some here too. “One heaven will be enough for me,” says one. But why not
have heaven here and heaven hereafter too? 3189.140

You have a part of heaven—“a young heaven,” as Dr. Watts somewhere calls it,
within you. 3538.549

I believe that heaven is a fellowship of the saints, and that we shall know one
another there. 40.302

Some have doubted whether there will be recognition in heaven; there is no room for
doubt, for it is called “my Father’s house;” and shall not the family be known to each
other? We are to “sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,” and we shall
therefore know these patriarchial saints; we shall not sit down with men in iron
masks, and see none but great unknowns; but we shall “know even as we are
known.” 887.476

I consider the doctrine of the non-recognition of our friends in heaven a marvellously
absurd one; I cannot conceive how there can be any communion of saints in heaven
unless there be mutual recognition. 3077.58

You and I can never imagine all the depths of hell. Shut out from us by a black veil of
darkness, we cannot tell the horrors of that dismal dungeon of lost souls. Happily, the
wailings of the damned have never startled us, for a thousand tempests were but a
maiden’s whisper, compared with one wail of a damned spirit. It is not possible for us
to see the tortures of those souls who dwell eternally within an anguish that knows
no alleviation. These eyes would become sightless balls of darkness, if they were
permitted for an instant to look into that ghastly shrine of torment. Hell is horrible,
for we may say of it, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the
heart of man to conceive the horrors which God hath prepared for them that hate
him. 203.310

As a man lives and dies, so will he be throughout eternity. The drunkard here will
have all a drunkard’s thirst there without the means of gratifying it. The swearer
here will become a yet more ripe and proficient blasphemer. Death does not change
but fixes character; it petrifies it. “He that is holy let him be holy still; he that is
filthy let him be filthy still.” The lost man remains a sinner and a growing sinner,
and continues to rebel against God. Would you have such a man in heaven? Shall the
thief prowl through the streets of the New Jerusalem? Shall the atmosphere of
Paradise be polluted by an oath? Shall the songs of angels be disturbed by the
ribaldry of licentious conversation? It cannot be. 518.378

We know that when impenitent sinners are gathered at the last their characters will
be the same. They were filthy here, they will be filthy still. Here on earth their sin
was in the bud; in hell it will be full-blown. If they were bad here they will be worse
there. Here they were restrained by providence, by company, by custom—there,
there will be no restraints, and hell will be a world of sinners at large, a land of
outlaws, a place where every man shall follow out his own heart’s most horrible
inclinations. Who would wish to be with them? 524.453

Beloved, the eternal torment of men is no joy to God. 610.37

Scripture does not speak of the fire of hell as chastening and purifying, but as
punishment which men shall receive for deeds done in the body. They are to be
visited with many stripes, and receive just recompence for transgressions. What can
there be about hell fire to change a man’s heart? Surely the more the lost will suffer
the more will they hate God. 682.177

What will be the development of an unregenerate character in hell I cannot tell, but
I am certain it will be something which my imagination dares not now attempt to
depict, for all the restraints of this life which have kept men decent and moral will be
gone when they come into the next world of sin; and as heaven is to be the perfection
of the saint’s holiness, so hell will be the perfection of the sinner’s loathsomeness, and
there will he discover, and others will discover, what sin is when it cometh to its
worst. 805.209

If you anxiously desire to see sin at the full come hither, and gaze adown the
fathomless abyss. Listen to those blasphemous execrations. If you have the courage,
hearken to those mingled cries of misery and passion which come up from Tophet,
from the abodes of lost spirits. Sin is there ripe; here it is green. Here we see its
darkness as the shades of evening, but there it is ten-fold night. Here it scatters
fire-brands, but there its quenchless conflagrations flame on for ever and ever. Oh! if
we have but grace to be rid of sin now, the riddance will save us from the wrath to
come. Sin, indeed, is hell, hell in embryo, hell in essence, hell kindling, hell emerging
from the shell: hell is but sin when it has manifested and developed itself to the full.
Stand at the gates of Tophet and understand how fell the disease for which heaven’s
remedy is provided in the stripes of the Only Begotten. 834.557

Then, O ye impenitent, there shall come to your eyes a tear which shall drip for ever,
a scalding drop which no mercy shall ever wipe away; a thirst that shall never be
abated; a worm that shall never die; and a fire that shall never be quenched. 860.147

There are two flaming jewels of Jehovah’s crown which shall be terribly seen in hell;
his wrath and his power. “What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his
power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for
destruction?” 1314.519

The torments of the lost will be self-inflicted, they are suicides to their souls, the
venom in their veins is self-created and self-injected. 1320.599

What, if it could be proven, as it never will be, that there are no pains of hell and no
eternal wrath, yet is not this enough—to have lost this immortality of glory, this
immortality of honour, and of likeness to God? This pain of loss, may none of us ever
incur it: for it is hell to lose heaven, it is infinite misery to miss infinite felicity. 1466.186

I am not like yon flatterers who tell you that there is a little hell and a little God,
from which you naturally infer that you may live as you like. Both you and they will
perish everlastingly if you believe them. There is a dreadful hell, for there is a
righteous God. 1523.120

There they come, streams of them, hurrying impatiently, rushing down to death
and hell—yes, eagerly panting, hurrying, dashing against one another to descend to
that awful gulf from which there is no return! No missionaries are wanted, no
ministers are needed to plead with men to go to hell. No books of persuasion are
wanted to urge them to rush onward to eternal ruin. They hurry to be lost; they are
eager to be destroyed. 2082.239

The Lord will, at the last, put us among those whom we are most like; in the day
when he shall separate the people gathered before him as a shepherd divideth the
sheep from the goats, the sheep will be put with the sheep, and the goats with the
goats. If you have lived like the wicked, you will die like the wicked, and be damned
like the wicked. 2401.87

Hell is sin fully developed,—a man’s own soul permitted to go to extreme limits with
that which it now carries out in a mitigated form, and so, becoming like a furnace
heated seven times hotter than usual, tormenting itself beyond all power of
imagination. 2723.183

There is a place where there is a dreadful prayer-meeting every day, and every hour
in the day; a prayer-meeting where all the attendants pray,—not merely one, but
all; and they pray, too, with sighs, and groans, and tears; and yet they are never
heard. That prayer-meeting is in hell. There is a begging meeting there, indeed. Oh,
that there were on earth half the prayer there will be there! Oh, that the tears shed
in eternity had but been shed in time! Oh, that the agony that the lost ones now feel
had but been felt beforehand! Oh, that they had repented ere their life was ended!
Oh, that their hearts had been made tender before the terrible fire of judgment had
melted them! 2766.80

Moreover, we are persuaded that the penalties of sin will differ; and that, albeit all
the wicked shall be cast into hell, yet there will be degrees in the anguish of that lost
estate. 3015.566

Would it not be better to go to heaven side by side with a poor old almshouse-
woman, or a chimney-sweep, or a pauper from the workhouse, than to go to hell
with a lord, a duke, or a millionaire? 3258.330

No human ministry ever gave such graphic and harrowing descriptions of hell as
Christ has given. You say you believe the words of Jesus; you do not suspect a loving
Saviour of exaggeration. Oh, my hearers, I ask you now in the name of God, if it be
true, why do ye not believe it? You do not believe it; that is clear enough. Would you
sit quietly in your seat this morning, young man, if you really believed that in one
instant you may be in hell? Old man, old in years and old in sin, would you be as
quiet in your soul to-day as you are if you knew and believed that there is but a step
between you and the flames? 492.66

I do not wonder that ingenious persons have invented theories which aim at
mitigating the terrors of the world to come to the impenitent. It is natural they
should do so, for the facts are so alarming as they are truthfully given us in God’s
word, that if we desire to preach comfortable doctrine and such as will quiet the
consciences of idle professors, we must dilute the awful truth. 974.77

Diminish your idea of the wrath of God and the terrors of hell, and in that proportion
you will diminish the results of your work. 1282.143

In some professed Christians their pity for the criminal has overcome their horror at
the crime. Eternal punishment is denied, not because the scriptures are not plain
enough on that point, but because man has become the god of man, and everything
must be toned down to suit the tender feelings of an age which excuses sin but
denounces its penalties, which has no condemnation for the offence, but spends its
denunciations upon the Judge and his righteous sentence. By all means have
sympathies manward, but at the same time show some tenderness towards the
dishonoured law and the insulted Lord. 1403.149

The doctrine of no punishment for any man is popular at this day, and threatens to
have even greater sway in the future. 1917.471

Believe me, dear friends, the words of God about the doom of sinners are very
dreadful. Hence, there are some that try to pare them down, and cut the solemn
meaning out of them; and then they say, “I could not rest comfortable if I believed the
orthodox doctrine about the ruin of man.” Most true, but what right have we to rest
comfortable? 2071.104

Suffice it for me to close up by saying, that the hell of hells will be to thee poor sinner,
the thought, that it is to be for ever. Thou wilt look up there on the throne of God, and
it shall be written “for ever!” When the damned jingle the burning irons of their
torments, they shall say, “for ever!” When they howl, echo cries “for ever!” 16.124

For ever knoweth no end; eternity cannot be spelled except in eternity. Still the soul
seeth written o’er its head, “Thou art damned for ever.” It heareth howlings that are
to be perpetual; it seeth flames which are unquenchable; it knoweth pains that are
unmitigated; it hears a sentence that rolls not like the thunder of earth which soon is
hushed—but onward, onward, onward, shaking the echoes of eternity—making
thousands of years shake again with the horrid thunder of its dreadful sound—
“Depart! depart! depart ye cursed!” 52.397

A million years shall not make so much difference to the duration of his agony as a
cup of water taken from the sea would to the volume of the ocean. Nay, when millions
of years told a million times shall have rolled their fiery orbits over his poor
tormented head, he shall be no nearer to the end than he was at first. 594.577

The eternity of punishment is a thought which crushes the heart. You have buried
the man but you have not buried his sins. His sins live, and are immortal; they have
gone before him to judgment, or they will follow after him to bear their witness as to
the evil of his heart and the rebellion of his life. The Lord is slow to anger, but when
he is once aroused to it, as he will be against those who finally reject his Son, he will
put forth all his omnipotence to crush his enemies. “Consider this,” saith he, “ye that
forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” It will be no trifle
to fall into the hands of the living God. He will by no means clear the guilty. For ever
must his anger burn. We have nothing in Scripture to warrant the hope that God’s
wrath against evil doers will ever come to an end. Oh, the wrath to come! The wrath
to come! The wrath which after ages and ages will still be to come, and still to come,
and still to come! 2176.652

It needs a whole eternity to set forth, in hell, all the justice of God in the punishment
of sin. 3038.220

Do you hear this man as he speaks to himself? “Oh! if I could ever escape from this
dreadful dungeon, it would be a heaven to me. If these awful fires could be quenched,
if this gnawing worm would but die, then I would be content. If, after ten thousand,
thousand, thousand years, I could hope to make my escape from this pit of woe, I
would set all the bells of my heart a-ringing for very joy at the bare possibility that,
at last, I might escape. But what is it that I see written before me? For ever! For ever
on my chains; for ever, branded on my limbs of pain; for ever, on yon waves of fire; for
ever in the angry gaze of an incensed Deity; for ever in those hungry depths, which
seem to yawn to suck me into deeper woe; for ever, for ever, for ever, for ever!” 3068.582

It is the hell of hell that everything there lasts for ever. Here, time wears away our
griefs, and blunts the keen edge of sorrow; but there, time never mitigates the woe.
Here, the sympathy of loving kindred, in the midst of sickness or suffering, can
alleviate our pain; but there, the mutual upbraidings and reproaches of fellow-
sinners give fresh stings to torment too dreadful to be endured. Here, too, when
nature’s last palliative shall fail, to die may be a happy release; a man can count the
weary hours till death shall give him rest; but, oh! remember, there is no death in
hell; death, which is a monster on earth, would be an angel in hell. But the terrible
reality is this, “Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” 3077.56

He speaks of the “fire that never shall be quenched.” Now, do not begin telling me
that that is metaphorical fire: who cares for that? If a man were to threaten to give
me a metaphorical blow on the head, I should care very little about it; he would be
welcome to give me as many as he pleased. And what say the wicked? “We do not
care about metaphorical fires.” But they are real, sir—yes, as real as yourself. There
is a real fire in hell, as truly as you have now a real body—a fire exactly like that
which we have on earth in everything except this—that it will not consume, though
it will torture you. You have seen the asbestos lying in the fire red hot, but when you
take it out it is unconsumed. So your body will be prepared by God in such a way that
it will burn for ever without being consumed; it will lie, not as you consider, in
metaphorical fire, but in actual flame. 66.104

If the wooings of Christ’s wounds cannot make you love Christ, do you think the
flames of hell will? 682.177

A piece of news about a fire in another continent makes a sensation in all our homes,
but the fire that never shall be quenched is heard of almost without emotion. 1022.650

Sinners in hell are not the fools they were on earth; in hell they do not laugh at
everlasting burnings; in the pit they do not despise the words, “eternal fire.” The
worm that never dieth, when it is gnawing, gnaws out all joke and laughter; you may
despise God now, and despise me now for what I say, but death will change your
note. 130.191

So will it be with any of you who have ridiculed the gospel of Christ, you will find in
the great and terrible day of the Lord, that your laughter shall have no power over
death, and win you no reprieve from the agonies of hell. There will be no room for
infidelity in that tremendous day. God will be all too real to you when he tears you in
pieces, and there is none to deliver; and the judgment will be all too real when the
thunder claps shall wake the dead, and the books shall be opened and read by the
blaze of lightning, and the sentence shall be pronounced, “Depart, ye cursed!” 823.425

Those who are evermore making light of hell are probably doing it in the hope of
making it easy for themselves. 1951.143

Remember, you can be laughed into hell, but you can never be laughed out of it. 3512.238

Our dear Redeemer, whose lips are as lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh, in great
tenderness of heart warned men of the sure result of their sins; and none used
stronger or more alarming language than he did concerning the future of ungodly
men. He knew nothing of that pretended sympathy which will rather let men perish
than warn them against perishing. Such tenderness is merely selfishness excusing
itself from a distasteful duty. 1914.433

Believe what he has revealed; do not say in your heart “I never will believe there is a
hell unless one should come from it.” Do you not see, that if one should come from it
then you would not believe at all, because you would say, “If one person came from
hell, then another may, and I may myself.” 10.501

A creature remaining at enmity against God must expect to dwell for ever with the
devils in hell; where can it dwell but where other rebels are confined in chains? 2795.422

Some have staggered over the doctrine of eternal punishment, because they could not
see how that could be consistent with God’s goodness. I have only one question to ask
concerning that or any other doctrine,—Does God reveal it in the Scriptures? Then, I
believe it, and leave to him the vindication of his own consistency. 2862.609