One time I was asked to go to see a man who was dying -- an old man about eighty years of age. He did not want to see me, and I went there with the understanding that he did not want to see a preacher. I talked to him about preparation for the future, and he made this remark to me, "I had nothing to do with my coming here, and I have nothing to do with my going away, and as to whether there is any hereafter, I do not know." He said, "Nobody ever came back" -- but there was where he was wrong. Somebody has come back. They were burying a man in the land where the old prophet Elisha was buried. They were carrying his corpse out when a number of raiders made their appearance, and these people were frightened and instead of putting the body in the grave allotted to it, they put it down in the grave where it touched Elisha's bones, and immediately the corpse was brought to life. He came back, but we have no record that he told us anything about where he had been. I do not believe that a soul ever loses consciousness. I think it steps out of this life into the life to come; this body fails, but the life that has come to the soul never fails. Lazarus was four days in the other world. Jesus Christ stood in front of his sepulcher and called him forth, and he came, and he sat at the table with Jesus and ate with Him, and the people came to see the man who had been raised from the dead; but we have not a record of a single word that he ever said about the world beyond. Dorcas died; they sent for the Apostle and he came, and the women stood around showing the garments that she had made and were weeping, and the Apostle called her back to life; but not a single word is given -- not a single utterance about the life beyond. Paul preached so long one night that a fellow who was sitting in the window went to sleep and fell out of the window, and they picked him up dead, and God through Paul restored him to life, but the man never told a word about the land to which he had been. Why? Because eternal verities are not to be proved by human testimony. There is a reason. "Neither will they believe though one was raised from the dead." And they did not. All of our knowledge comes from the Word of God. I believe in the whole Gospel, a whole Christ, a whole heaven, and a whole hell. If there is no hell, there is no heaven. All that you know about heaven you get from that Word; all that you know about hell you get from that Book. Jesus Christ was the most gentle man that ever walked this earth, but he told the most terrible truths in regard to the fact of hell -- he told us so that we might avoid it. It is not a threat; it is a warning. You take your Bibles and you read, "Hell hath enlarged herself." And again, "It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Who said so? Jesus. "And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." "And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Jesus Christ knew what He was talking about.
Listen to my text, Jesus' words: "In hell he lifted up his eyes." Who was he? A church member. George Whitefield was preaching one time in Philadelphia in his inimitable manner, and he said, "Gabriel, are there any Methodists in heaven?" "No." "Any Presbyterians in heaven?" "No." "Any Baptists in heaven?" "No." And he might have said, "Any Holiness people in heaven?" "No." "Well, who have you there?" "All those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." "Any Methodists in hell?" "Yes." "Any Presbyterians in hell?" "Yes." "Any Baptists in hell?" "Yes." "Any Holiness people in hell?" "Yes." Your church membership will not save you; your profession will not save you; your mere testimony will not save you. The Bible says, "They were saved by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony," but the blood comes first. That is the teaching of God's Word. This man was a church member. Listen! I am not asking your pardon for saying so, I am not apologizing for the truth, I do not believe that half the people who make a profession of Jesus Christ have ever been saved, and I do not believe that half of the people who profess to having been sanctified have received the blessing. Why? "By their fruits ye shall know them." I labored with Dr. Keen a few years ago, and he has put it on record that 75 per cent of the church members that he prayed with when they were dying, he had to pray that they might be ready. Church members! This man was a church member. "In hell he lifted up his eyes." He had the Bible; had the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament; he had the Scriptures to which Jesus referred when He said, "Search the Scriptures, they are they which testify of me." These thirty-nine books testify of Jesus. This man had these books -- had them in his home. He was an orthodox Jew; he was a member of the church, but he died without any hope, just as many a church member has died. It takes more than your name on the church record, it takes more than sprinkling a few drops of water on you or going in the river; it takes more than partaking of the sacraments to make a man a Christian. You can support the preacher, you can give your money to the church, you can make a profession, you can have a button in your buttonhole labeled, "Holiness unto the Lord," and die and go to hell. Bible Salvation is a life -- just as good on Monday as it is on Sunday; just as good in the middle of winter time as it is in Campmeeting season. Just as good when you are 1,000 miles away from campmeeting and the folks that know you -- just as life-giving, just as soul-sustaining, just as heaven-inspiring -- as it is when you are surrounded by the saints. I enjoy Christian fellowship; I enjoy the songs of Zion. Sometimes I hardly know whether I am in the body or out of it when some saint of God gets hold in prayer and the skies begin to open and the glory flows; but God bless you! your salvation or mine does not depend on the number of Christians there are around us; it depends on our personal relation to God.
This man was a church member of good standing, but Jesus Christ, moving in the power of the Spirit, giving heaven-born truths into the world, Jesus Christ says, this man died and "in hell he lifted up his eyes." Church member! Orthodox, good standing!
We know something of hell. In hell they see; they know heaven is afar off, and they know it is not for them. There is a legend, Tantalus ever standing with a fountain of water rising right up to his lips. He is thirsty, and oh, if he could only have a drink! if he could but have a drink! He bends his body forward to take a drink of the water, and it recedes, and when he straightens up the water rises right up to his lips. Thirsty! Days, weeks, months without water! Moves forward again to take a drink and the water recedes, rises again and the water rises right to his lips, but the water is not for him. The lost in hell know that over yonder somewhere in God's great empire, there is a heaven, there is a place where the redeemed gather, where there is no night, where there is no sickness, where there are no tears, and they know it is not for them! Once they might have been saved, once they might have had the peace and joy of the redeemed, but it has gone by forever, and they are eternally lost. They know that in hell. Hell is no joke; hell is not a dream; hell is not an imagination. God tells us in His Word that there is a hell that awaits the man who rejects the truth of God. You do not have to get drunk, do not have to be an adulterer, do not have to be licentious, do not have to be un clean; you can be a good citizen, pay off your debts, live a moral life and die and go to hell simply because you reject Jesus Christ and refuse to walk in the light that God gives you. You can be very respectable and go to hell; you can have the good opinion of your neighbors, and go to hell; you can be a good husband, and go to hell. Listen! God in His Word says to us, "Because there is wrath, beware!" The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of man. It means something to be a Christian; it means something to live for God. Some people think that because they pay their debts and live an outwardly respectable life, that is about all that is required of them. Any honest man will pay his debts; morality is only another name for decency in sinning, and it has never saved anybody yet. The young man said, "All these have I kept from my youth up," yet came to Jesus and said, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He knew he did not have it, and he was moral. Oh, it means something to live for God!
The lost in hell know the saints are at rest -- know the enjoyment of heaven. There will be many a girl wake up in hell and say, "My mother is over there: she shed tears for me: she exhorted me, she lived for God before me, but I am lost forever." You say, "Look here, preacher; hell is the abode of spirits!" No, not alone; it is the abode of men who have bodies just as you and I have. You say, "You cannot prove it." There is a resurrection of the just and unjust, a reuniting of soul and body; the soul and body will stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, and the Judge will say, "Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
Another thing they do in hell -- they feel. This man in hell lifted up his eyes being in torment. He said, "I am tormented." That is a feeling. Tormented! "I might have been saved, but the harvest is past. I had conviction which was wrought by the Holy Ghost; I saw others going to the altar and praying through to victory, but I rejected Jesus, grieved the Holy Ghost, ignored the truth, and now I am lost in hell forever." Man is the author of his own damnation, man is fixing his own destiny by his actions in this life. God says so right here in His Word.
Another thing we know they do in hell -- they pray -- and, listen! I want you to get it -- if the doctors did not drug you before you died, you would pray before you went to hell. Nine-tenths of the people who die today die drugged by the doctors, and pass out into eternity unconscious! If you did not give that drug to the sinner before the black demons who are waiting around his bedside began to take hold of him, he would scream and cry to God for mercy. I was with a wounded soldier boy who was waiting for a car to come and take him to the hospital. I had to listen to that dying boy in blue: "O God! O God! O God! Have mercy on my soul!" There were a lot of soldier boys around there, but nobody laughed; there was silence -- he was facing eternity -going out into eternity unsaved. I was nineteen years of age, and I can hear him yet: "O God! O God! O God! Have mercy on my soul!" Oh, if it were not for your drugs they would pray before they go to hell. This man in hell prayed. What for? A drop of water! Did not get it. Prayed for mercy. Did not get it. Mercy is offered here; mercy is all around us; grace has been provided, but when men reject the mercy and refuse the grace, they will wake up in hell and pray for mercy, and plead for grace -- but mercy and grace are refused. This man prayed, but in hell there is no answer.
They are hopeless in hell; weeping, gnashing their teeth. biting their lips, chewing their tongues -- hopeless, despairing, curse God, curse Jesus Christ, curse the Holy Ghost, curse the preacher that did not preach the truth, curse the church member who lived alongside of them and did not talk to them about their souls. Hell is a place where hate reigns predominantly and eternally.
Hell is the prison house of the damned. I was in a city one time; I wanted my boy to see what sin would do for folks, so I took him into the jail. The little fellow clung to me and held on to my hand, never opened his mouth, just looked up in my face, looked at the jail, looked at the benches in the cells, looked at the cold, bare walls, looked at the prisoners, and he came out with a scared look on his face and never said one word. Hell, the prison house of the damned. No comfort, no joy, no peace, no communion, not even with one another. Curse God, curse each other. Hell is the prison house of the damned!
He was a church member, but he was in hell. May one time have had an experience, but he died without God and in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment. In hell they want to die. Somebody told me one time, "An Englishman is dying over there; you go over and see him. He does not want to see you, but you go over and see him." I went and found that he was dying with a cancer, and every time a pain would strike him he would groan and would say, "I wish I had a knife!" And directly he would say, "Oh, let me have a razor! Oh, if I had a razor I would stop this!" But, listen! no matter how terrible the paroxysms in hell, they never commit suicide. How many suicides in the United States last year? Suicides; but you cannot commit suicide in hell. They want to die in hell -- and cannot.
Every man and woman here tonight is facing an eternal heaven or an eternal hell. Which way are you going? Can you stand up and say, "Yes, by the grace of God I am going to heaven; I have the witness of the Spirit that I am a child of God?" If you cannot, God help you! "The words that I speak unto you, they shall judge you in the last day." God says so. I am dealing with God's truth. I challenge any man in this room or anywhere else to come to my room and point out to me anything that I am preaching that is not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Cannot repent in hell. The devil says, "There is time enough yet, time enough yet." But, listen! This man said, "Send Lazarus that he may warn my brothers that they may repent." He never says anything about repenting himself -- he knows there is no repentance in hell. Oh, aren't they sorry in hell? Yes, but that is not repentance. Repentance is a godly sorry for sin. There is no repentance in hell. That old Bible says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, for he will have mercy and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." There is pardon; there is mercy. When? "Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation." "By the grace of God Jesus Christ tasted death for every man." "Whosoever will let him come." "Oh, if it is that easy, I can find God any time I want to." No, you cannot do it. There have been people here who have been coming and coming to the altar and are not saved yet; and I knew a girl who sought the Lord for six weeks, and finally she got through, and before the year was over I preached her funeral sermon. If you can be saved anytime, why was not that girl saved at the beginning, will you please tell me? You cannot be saved any time you please. There are conditions to be complied with. Dr. Chaplin was dying, and the agony was so great he said, "Oh, I pity any sinner that has to try to get ready at a time like this." My Bible says, "Now is the accepted time." My Bible says, "Be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the son of man cometh."
Listen! There are no children in hell! Say, you remember when you stood in your parlor and looked down on the sweet little face in the white casket -- the corpse of your child. You will never see it again. Listen, sinner -- you will never see that child again! There are no children in hell. "There angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." Jesus Christ who tells us there is a heaven and a hell, says of children, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." Listen, sinner! When you saw the little child in that casket in your parlor you took your last look at that little one you will ever have, for there are no children in hell. There are no homes in hell. Home is where love presides; home is where love reigns. There may be no piano, there may be no velvet carpet, there may be no paintings on the wall, but if there is love there, it is home; but there are no homes in hell, for there is no love in hell. Oh, we know something about hell; we know from this Word. Everyone that enters the eternal world saved through the blood of Jesus Christ have the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. Love reigns in heaven -- hate reigns in hell.
I saw a foretaste of hell one time. It was on a campground in Indiana. A young man came to the altar, knelt down and pulled out of his pocket a bottle of morphine and handed it to my co-laborer, saying, "Take this; I do not want it any more." Brother L took it and providentially smashed it all to pieces. The next day Brother L saw that young man and he said, "How are you today?" "Not very well," and his nerves were twitching, but he said, "I am not going back to it." He knelt at the altar a second time and we prayed for him, but his nerves were all on fire. Sunday morning, the last day of the Camp, someone came around to our little cottage and said, "That young man is down here wanting morphine." I went down to where he was, and there he lay with his head pillowed on his mother's shoulder and he said, "I want morphine; I must have morphine." He said, "Brother, go harness up that horse; I will drive thirty miles. I know the doctor will give it to me. Great God, I am in hell! Great God, I want morphine!" His mother said, "Now, Everett, we will pray for you." Somebody said, "Look to Jesus." He said, "Oh, Jesus nothing!" They sent for the doctor and he said, "Doctor, give me a shot in there." Somebody said, "Don't you give him any; he has smashed his morphine bottle and is trying to break away from it. Don't you give it to him." He said, "Oh, I am dying; I am in hell, and I have to have it! I have to have it!" I said, "There is a foretaste of hell." Oh, I saw that. But, listen! You cannot get morphine in hell. Oh, that is an example of hell! Make that eternal and multiply it by forever, and you have the agonies of the damned. God help us! Whatever your sin is, you had better repent of it, for it is sin that sends men to hell.
Over in Kentucky a member of the church lay on his death bed, and he realized he was dying and said, "I am lost! I am lost! I am lost!" His wife said, "No, husband, you are not lost. Oh, what could the church have done without you? You have been a stand-by to the church all these years. You are not lost." She sends over to get the preacher. He comes. "Husband says he is lost; comfort him." The preacher walks over and the man says, "I am lost! I am lost! I am lost!" The preacher says, "No, brother, you are not lost. You have been the pillar of the church on which it could depend." He walked away and said, "He is delirious." He said, "I am not delirious; you are my pastor; that man there owned the farm next to me when I was farming in the country. There is my wife sitting there. Don't tell me I am delirious; don't tell me of my church work. I am lost! I am dying and going to hell, and I am a church member." So was this man, and in hell he lifted up his eyes. Bunyan says, "There is a way to hell from the very gate of heaven."
