fruit." One wonders at the
forbearance of God! There are some in this place, who, when in
affliction, sent for the godly, and promised if only they were spared,
they would bear good fruit. But alas! they are worse than ever now. Let
such hardened sinners remember where the axe lies. The woodman can pick
it up any moment, and it will be useless to pray then. Can you not hear
the step of the feller of trees? He is on his way with orders which
brook no delay, thy hour is at hand, and thou shalt fall, to be cast into
the fire!

I look around, and ask the question--

"WHO AMONG US SHALL DWELL WITH THE DEVOURING
FIRE? WHO AMONG US SHALL DWELL WITH
EVERLASTING BURNINGS?"

Dare you look at the fire? Come, be a man, and see thy future. The tree
is in the blazing pit. It cannot get out of the fire, any more than it
could escape the axe. Did you ever think of the illustration of the
text--

WOOD TO FIRE.

What more natural? It is true, it might have been somewhere else, but it
will burn as though it were made for the fire. Mark you, it is
unquenchable! Who can extinguish that which God lights? You hear men
say, "God is too good to burn men in hell." That is not the way to put
it. The fire will go out when there is no fuel.

MEN WHO SIN, BURN THEMSELVES.

That drunkard, for instance. They say of him, "He has a spark in his
inside." What the poor wretch suffers when he cannot get strong drink!
How he begs and prays for a penny to get a gill of beer. Now don't blame
God for that! It is his own doing. Suppose now, God lets that man have
his own way, and die a drunkard, and he wakes up in hell with that
thirst, and no drink, not a drop, and never will be! And is the drunkard
the worst of men? Is he worse than the man who grows rich on the other
man's poverty? I would as soon have the drunkard's hell, as the eternity
of those who took his money, and sold him that which is burning away his
life and chances of salvation. Do you see that wicked seducer, and those
who dishonour their parents; and those who keep back that which they have
in plenty, when they might feed the hungry and clothe the naked? "These
shall go away into everlasting punishment." Now what are you going to
do? It is not the axe which is touching you now. It is the hand of
Jesus, the hand which has been scorched with the fire of God's anger to
save us. Christ suffered (the just for the unjust) to bring us to God.
Do not tire Him o