Truly this is a most painful
thought to us. Maria Sandberg, Glimpses of Heaven,
1880. You are just, O holy one, the
one who is, and who was, and who is to be, because you have
sent these judgments, for they have shed the blood of your saints
and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve. And I heard the altar respond,
Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.
Revelation 16 5-7 There are in this book of Revelation
not only glimpses of heaven and of the happiness of the redeemed,
but dreadful views of the punishments of hell. And men were scorched
with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God, who has power
over these plagues. And they did not repent and give
Him glory, and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain.
They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their
sores, and did not repent of their deeds. Revelation 16 9-11
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually
immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their
part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. Revelation
21 8 It must be a painful thought to the people of God that so
many of their fellow creatures are everlastingly banished from
the presence of the Lord, and that so many others are following
on in the broad road that leads to eternal destruction. Perhaps
among both the former and the latter are some dear to us by
the ties of kindred or friendship. Truly, this is a most painful
thought to us in this present world, but it will not be so
in heaven, for we shall have such a sense of the justice of
God in the punishment of the wicked that we shall acquiesce
in their sentence of condemnation, and say, Yes, Lord God Almighty,
true and just are your judgments, they are worthy of everlasting
damnation. O my soul, what can I render
to my Saviour, who has delivered my soul from the nethermost hell? Surely, but for his blood shed
for me, I could never have had an entrance into his everlasting
kingdom." Let me, then, first learn a lesson of deep humility,
of ceasing from vain glory, and thoughts of my own worthiness.
Let me say, O to grace, how great a debtor! Then let me learn a
lesson of submission to the righteous will of God in His dealings with
mankind, What I do not know now, I shall know hereafter. And then shall I be constrained
to say, Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.