St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-04-27

gong lnIO SOuOn. HIS uduSuJeTS ndu
married some of the Sodomites, men
who were vile as hell itself
A great many parents take their chill
dren into temptation and then wonder
why it is they yield great many
parents lead their children right into
ruin and then they wonder why it is
that their children go to ruin. The
angels said to Lot, ''Make haste, go
and warn your sons-in-law and your
daughters to get out of this place, for
we come to tell you God is going to
destroy this city. All in the city have
got to perish that don't escape to yOn
mountain" And you can now see that
old man with gray locks, with his head
down, passing through the streets of
Sodom. Perhaps it is past midnight.
There he is, going through those streets
alone. He goes to house aud you can
hear him knocking. Some one opens
the window. "WhO is there ?" '!Why,
it is your father-in-law, Lot" "What
is he here for at this time of the night ?"
'Why, there are two messengers from
God at my house. Two angels have
come down to warn me that this city is
going to perish, that God is going to
deal in Judgment with SOdOm, and |
want to have you get up and take my
daughters and come to my house, that
we may all leave the city together
And they Knocked him, they made light
of him, you can hear those sons-in-law
laughing and scOtfing at their father
in-law. can Just imagine one of them
said, ''Why you must have gone clean
mad destroy SOdom SodOm was
never more prosperous than it is now,
there is no sign of Il coming storm or Of
the coming judgment; to be sure, the
world has been drowned by water once,
but God said he would never drown it
again p ''Yes, my son, that is true,
but God is going to burn up this city :;
he is going to rain fire from heaven
down upon it aud all will perish that
do not leave the city" And they all
Knocked him. He lived so like the
Sodomites that they didn't have con-
tidence in his testimony ; and to me 1t
is one of the saddcSt things in the world
to see Il prOfessed Christian that has
lost his influence over his childIen, or
his children have lost confidence in his
word, where Il man has lost his teSti-
mony. That is another thing Lot lost
down in SOdOm he lost his testimony ::
his sOns-in-law Knocked him, he could
not call them into the ark, as Noah did.
Gou will find hundreds and thousands
of Lots to-day i'll Boston, men that have
/, lost their testimony, men that have lost
their influence over their children they
are, perhaps, living in luxury and ease,
but still there is one thing that is
piercing their heart through and through
, and that $, that their children are lost.
| see the old man he turns away
from that house with sadness. Look ut
him now as he goes back through the
streets of SodOm with his head down
, and tears trickling over his cheeks and
| now he begins to wake up to what he
has lost. What had the old man lost
He had lost not only twenty years OF
his time, not only had he lost his testi-
mony but all his property is going tu
; perish inside of twenty-tOur houIs he
? is not only going to lose his property
5 but his daughters that have married
t those SodomiteS will perish in the city.
t He can already hear the judgment
? wheels rolling on, and God is going tC
= judge that city. And with what sad
t ness he must have told those angels
that he could not get his sons-in-law to
2 follow him. Oh, may God help us tC
NV I SO liltli otll W III nav L Nbll
{ fidence in our piety | haven't much
| confidence in mans religion if his
' children don't have respect for him, il
| he don't live at home so that his chill
/ dren will have confidence that he is 4
t true man. And the next morning Lot
= and his wife fingered. | don't blame
. them for it. 1t seems to me if | had
e left my daughters in Sodom | would
+ have fingered and would have wanted
f to have made one more effort to get
n them out. | can see that father and
e mother, with their hearts breaking anG
bleeding They have got to leave the
| city, and their children must perish
4 G0u call him Il successful man, do you
Y That is what the world calls to-day {;
i shrewd, successful business man. He
Il accumulated wealth, but his family i,
t ruined. Lot took his two daughters
5 and the angels had to take them by the
i -hand to hasten them out. Escape TO-
Il thy life !" and they got them out anC
n we are told that Lots wife looked back
:. and what picture of many right her,
= in Boston to-day! They have just go
i one foot, as it were, out, and they refuse
n to take the next step, or they perhaps
t have got out of SOdom but they are no
Y willing to 90 into ZOar, and there they
n are between Sodom and Zoar, and look
II ing back, and how many will perisl
Y Just as Lots wife did between Sodon
e and ZOar.
S "Remember Lots wife"
e But now we find Lot is ont of the
city and destruction comes suddenly
g These men in SOdom undoubtedly haC
b given up the idea that God was goin.
y to destroy their city. We are told il
: one place that they did eat, they drank
+, they bought, they sold, until Lot wen
G out of SOdOm, and the sun that morn
5 ing rose as he was going out of Sodom
S and that very hour that he left SOdon
II fire came down from heaven and con
IS sumed those cities of the plain, and LO
5 lost not only his children and hi
:. wealth, but he lost all his time, and Ol
e one of the mountain sides we find hin
d falling into sin; and he became tn,
e father of the MOabites and the AmOrites
d and the curtain falls upon him the sil
r, is too horrible to look upon. What
It miserable ending to man that nigh
o have been exalted to heaven, and wa
If exalted to heaven with privileges, ant
e IL man that might have been useful il
II his day, a man that might have turnet
st many from darkness to light, a MAJ
V that might have been associated witt
Il Abraham all his days, and had hi
o name come along down the ages, an,
II his name would have been power ant
l. an influence in the world to-day if h
/, had only followed Abraham, if he hat
) set up his tent and his altar, called upOl
II his God and lived with God instead o