st, and to
express his very words: "_This scripture must needs have been fulfilled,
which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning
Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. * * * For it is
written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let
no man dwell therein. And, His bishopric let another take._"[181] If any
one feels reluctant to imagine that such cursings should fall from the
lips of the merciful Savior, let him remember that the most awful curse
which shall ever fall on the ears of terrified men shall be pronounced
by Jesus himself, "_Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared
for the devil and his angels._"[182] The solemn facts of the Bible will
not accommodate themselves to our likes and dislikes. Christ loves
righteousness and hates iniquity; in the Bible he takes leave to say so,
and he expects his people to share his feelings, and to be willing to
express them on fit occasions.

Personal revenge, and curses for mere personal injuries, are forbidden
in the New Testament as well as in the Old. But it was an apostle of
Jesus Christ who cried, "_If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let
him be accursed. Though we or an angel from heaven bring any other
gospel unto you, let him be accursed._"[183] Nor until we can in some
measure feel this holy indignation against sin, and this burning desire
to see all tyranny, superstition, bribery, licentiousness, and
profanity, crushed and banished from the earth, can we pray in truth
"_Thy kingdom come._" Still less can we be prepared for the rejoicings
of heaven over the conquest of the enemies of God and man: "_Rejoice
over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath
avenged you on her._"

Reader, you hope to go to heaven; but it may be a different place from
what you dream of. Did you ever study the employment of the saints
there? Are you washed from your sins? Is your mind purified from your
carnal notions? Unless a man be born again he can not see the kingdom of
God. Are your likes and dislikes, your sentiments and sympathies, your
understanding and your will, all brought into subjection to Christ? Can
you heartily love and adore a sin-hating, sin-avenging God? Or do you
shrink back in terror or dislike from God's denunciations of wrath
against the wicked? Would your benevolence lead you to deal alike with
the righteous and the wicked; and to abhor the thought of destroying
them that dest