(2958)
SIN WITHOUT ATONEMENT
A writer, speaking of the wasteful use of coal in England, and the consequent diminishing of the national store, says:
Our stock of coal is a definite and limited quantity that was placed in the present storehouse long before human beings came upon the earth. Every ton of coal that is wasted is lost forever, and can not be replaced by any human effort, while bread is a product of human industry, and its waste may be replaced by additional human labor. The sin of bread-wasting does admit of agricultural atonement, while there is no form of practical repentance that can positively and directly replace a hundredweight of wasted coal.
Here is an instance of a sin without atonement. Man can not reproduce the coal that he has once wasted. Grace has a kindlier word for our moral waters. The “years that the locust eaten” may be restored. (Text.)
(2959)
SINNERS AND GOD
The following is taken from Jonathan Edwards’ sermon entitled, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” The sinners are given a dreadful warning.
The wrath of God burns against them; their damnation don’t slumber; the pit is prepared; the fire is made ready; the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The devils watch them; they are ever by them, at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy, hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw His hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost. The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; His wrath toward you burns like fire; He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in His sight; you are ten times so abominable in His eyes as the most hateful and venomous serpent is in ours.
Jonathan Edwards was born October 5, 1703. What a difference time makes in religious thinking.