t he was not
afraid; and he made a wager that he dared go out in front of the shop,
while the lightnings were flying, and dare the Almighty. He went
out; shook his fist at the heavens, crying, "Strike, if you dare!"
Instantly a thunder-bolt struck him. He was dead. He cursed God, and
died!

God will not abide this sin. He will not let it escape. There is a
kind of manifold paper by which a man may, with a heavy pencil, write
upon a dozen sheets at once--the writing going down through all the
sheets. So every oath and blasphemy goes through, and is written
indelibly on every leaf of God's remembrance. Ah! how much our Father
bears! Can you make an estimate of how many blasphemies will roll up
from the streets and saloons of our cities to-night? If you go out
and look up you cannot see them. There will be no trail of fire on the
sky. But the air is full of them. The name of Christ is not so often
spoken in worship as in derision. God will be cursed to-night by
hundreds of lips. The grog-shops will curse him. The houses of shame
will curse him. Five Points will curse him. Bedford street will curse
him. Chestnut street will curse him. Madison square will curse him.
Beacon street will curse him. Every street in all our cities will
curse him.

This blasphemy is an abomination that no words of mine can describe.
And God hears it. They curse His name. They curse his Sabbath. They
curse his Bible. They curse his people. They curse his Only Begotten
Son. Yes; they swear by the name of Jesus! It makes my hair rise, and
my flesh creep, and my blood chill, and my breath catch, and my foot
halt.

Dionysius had a cave where men were incarcerated. At the top of the
cave was an aperture to which he could put his ear, and could hear
every sigh, every groan, every word of the inmates. This world is so
arranged that all its voices go up to heaven. God puts down his ear
and hears every word of praise offered, and every word of blasphemy
spoken.

Our cities must come to judgment. All these oaths must be answered
for. They die on the air, but they have an eternal echo. Listen
for the echo. It rolls back from the ages to come. Listen:--"_All
blasphemers shall have their place in the lake that burneth with fire
and brimstone_." Some have thought that a lost soul in the future
world will do that which it was most prone to do in this world. If so,
then think of a man blaspheming God through all eternity!

This habit grows upon a man, unti