day when the Son of man is revealed. he which shall be upon the house top,*

In that day, and his stuff

in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. REMEMBER LOT'S WIFE!" The apostle Peter, in the passage read at the commencement of this Lecture, admits this fact into the catalogue of divine judgments against iniquity; and represents the offended and insulted Deity, "TURNING THE CITIES OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH INTO ASHES, condemning them with an overthrow, and making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly." While the writers of the scriptures thus strengthen one another, they evince that the same characteristic ruin, has through all ages, overspread the same country. We observe

2. THERE REMAIN CORRESPONDENT FEATURES OF DESOLATION ON THE SPOT TO THIS DAY. It is readily admitted, that travellers who visit the country in question are liable to be deceived; and that in many instances the inhabitants of the surrounding regions have imposed upon them. Josephus has asserted that the pillar of salt was to be seen in his days, and that he actually saw it. It is disputable, how far this testimony may be received; not that we bring the charge of wilful misrepresentation against him, but that it is probable he was himself deceived. The same credulity which led him to admit the account of a sabbatical river, would easily induce him, visiting the lake, as he did, with a mind prepossessed in favor of some such monument of antiquity remaining, to mistake some rude, mishapen rock, for a crumbling fragment of the pillar of which Moses speaks. Nevertheless,

These houses had flat roofs, and an ascent to them on the outside: of course a person at the top would descend without entering the house. † Luke xvii, 28-32.

we think that the general features of the country, and particularly the lake, are standing memorials of this awful fact. Some indeed have denied that the cities stood upon this spot. But it must be admitted that the universal appearance of the land sanctions the common opinion, that here judgment was executed against the unrighteous inhabitants of Sodom. The description of the face of that unhappy country, given in the passages which we have quoted from the scriptures, and transcribed from ancient historians, accords well with the whole aspect of the vicinity of the Dead Sea. The country is stripped of herbage; the lake, and the soil, are salt and bituminous; and vegetable life seems extinct on all its borders. It would be difficult to fix upon any other spot in the known world, to which the principal features of the narrative would apply. It is to be supposed, from the uniform language of the Bible, that the destruction of these cities was to be a lasting monument of divine displeasure against their wickedness: consequently that strong vestiges of their desolation should remain through every age. It is certain that all the ancient historians who have adverted at all to this singularly awful display of divine justice, have also fixed upon this place, as the theatre on which it was exhibited. It is no less remarkable, that all who have described this lake, and its vicinity, have connected with it a tradition, more or less explicit, respecting the destruction of the cities of the plain; and some of them were men to whom it is scarcely probable, that the writings of Moses were accessible; and who must therefore have received the knowledge of the event through some other channel. May we not also reasonably suppose that some changes have been effected by time, which have considera

bly altered the aspect, and even the properties of the waters, since the ancient writers, whom we have quoted, visited this land of barren solitude? Time, which alters the whole globe, and overturns empires, would not spare the Dead Sea, and its deserted, naked shores! Jordan perpetually rolls his tide to this gulf: streams of fresh water are continually pouring into it: the Arabs diminish its salt, by draining its water into large pits near the lake, leaving it to be crystallized by the sun; and its bitumen is gathered by the same people, whose ingenuity applies it to many purposes, and who convert it into an article of commerce. We still think, that the spot manifests marked features of desolation at this hour; and the lake is said to be about thirty miles long, and ten miles broad.

Before this subject is entirely dismissed, permit us to make two remarks, which appear to arise out of it.

1. JUDGMENTS DELAYED WILL YET EVENTUALLY BE EXECUTED. To other sins, the ungodly add that of presumption. Because serenity reigns over the face of the heavens, they apprehend no evil they conclude that the tempest will never rise. When the cloud appears "like a man's hand," they flatter themselves that it will extend no farther. When you warn them of their danger, and foretel their approaching ruin, they regard you as "one that mocketh." Even when the heavens are overspread with blackness, and the thunder of indignation begins to roll, they imagine that the storm will spend itself, and that the gloom will pass away. But the day will arrive when the Savior shall appear "to be admired in them that believe," and to return on the head of his adversaries, the evil which they have devised against his dignity; and that day

shall "burn as an oven."* In vain shall the unrighteous then cry for help, and seek a refuge from the wrath of their judge. In vain shall they turn to the east, the west, the north, or the south; every where the sword of justice meets their eye-every where the tribunal of God rises before their sight every where the clangor of the last trumpet assails their earsand the grave itself forms no shelter from the gaze of Omnipotence! In vain shall they call upon the rocks to fall on them, and the mountains to cover them: the earth and the heavens shall flee from the face of "Him that sitteth upon the throne." "Now is the accepted time: behold, now is the day of salvation!"

2. SECURITY IN EVERY SITUATION, BELONGS TO THE FRIENDS OF GOD. You have seen Noah floating securely on the bosom of a destroying flood, while the whole world perished. You have beheld Lot safely conducted out of Sodom, when the inhabitants of the plain, and the perverse scoffers of his own family, were consumed. What is the language of this dreadful event to the respective classes of mankind? To the "ungodly" it is saying "Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish!" To you, who cast your eyes over these desolated plains, it cries "Escape for your life"-flee to a refuge more secure than the mountain -and hide under the shadow of the cross! But what is its testimony respecting the people of God? "They shall not be afraid for the terror by night: nor for the arrow that flieth by day: nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness: nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at their side, and ten thousand at their right hand: but it shall not

See note 4, of this Lecture, at the end of the volume.

come nigh them! Only with their eyes shall they be hold, and see the reward of the wicked." The last storm which shall arise to blot out the sun, to extinguish the stars, to rend the sepulchre, and to raise the dead, shall waft them to an everlasting kingdom. They shall meet the Lord in, the air: they shall be changed into his image: they shall appear with him in glory.

O Christian, death is advancing to conduct thee home, to terminate thine afflictions, and to hide thee for ever from the storms of life! Even now the moment arrives! Hark-the trampling of the horses at the door and the "chariot of fire" waits to bear thee to heaven!