This came through on one of the blogs that I read every day. I couldn’t let this one go by without bringing it to your attention.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. (Luke 16:27-28)
In imagination–I pray that it may be only in imagination–I see some of you die unsaved; and I see you as you pass into the next world unpardoned, and your soul realizes, for the first time, what was the experience of the rich man, of whom our Savior said, “In Hell he lifted up his eyes”–as though he had been asleep before and had only awakened to his true condition. “He lifted up his eyes” and gazed all around, but he could see nothing except that which caused him dismay and horror; there was no trace of joy or hope, no track of ease or peace.
Then, through the awful gloom, came the sound of questions as these: “Where are you, sinner? You were in a house of prayer a few weeks ago, and the preacher urged you to seek the Lord; but you procrastinated. Where are you now? You said there was no such place as Hell; but what do you say about it now? Where are you? You despised Heaven and refused Christ; where are you now? The Lord in mercy preserve all of you from that!
(Charles Spurgeon, At the Master’s Feet, February 17)