with the solemn announcen~ent of the gospel, which necessitates that they be vehe- mently presser!, like Lot, w1th-(l) Earnest admonition. "Arise I'' "Up I" "Get thee out of this place I " (2) Serious caution. " Lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city." 3. Grawusly asmted, Even the urgency displayed by the nngels would not have sufficed to rescue Lot, had they not extended to him and his worl<lly-min<led partner a helping hand. Hankering after Sodom, perhaps thinking of the wealth they had to leave, the good man and his wife still lingered and were nt last_ only dragged forth by main force beyond the precincts of the do~med city. It reminds us that few, probably none, would ever escape from the city of destruction if Dfrinc grace were not practically to lay hold of them and drag them forth • and c,en this Divine grace would not do unless the Lord were specially merciful to them as he was to Lot. 4. Minutely directed. To the further prosecution of their journey they were not left without most careful instructions as to how they might secure their safety; and neither are awakened sinners, who have been aroused to see their peril and to start upon the way of life, permitted to struggle on without celestial p:nidance as to how to make their calling and election sure. Like the :fleeing Lot and Lis wife, they are counselled (1) to be in earnest, seeing it is their life for which they flee; (2) to beware of backsliding, since he who looketh back is not fit for the king• <lorn of God ; (3) to indulge in no delay, since so long as one continues in the plain of his natural condition he stands in imminent peril; and (4) to·persevere until he reaches the mount of salvation in Jesus Christ. II. Trm OTIRTHROW 011" SoooM. 1. Supernatural. Whatever the natural forces employed in the destruction. of the fair cities of the Jordan circle, their employment wiih such severity and at such a time, viz., precisely at the moment when the moral rl.egradation of the people showed them to be ripe for judgment, was a signal <lemonstration of the miraculous character of the catastrophe; as indeed the narrative alleges it to have been a phenomenon altogether out of the common course of events: "Jeho,ah rained down fire from Jehovah." 2. Unexpected. It does not appear that the inhabitants of Sodom generally were warned of the approaching fire-storm, though, i.£ Lot's sons-in-law may be accepted as an indication of the temper in which the people at that time were, any such announcement would only have been listened to with mocking incredulity. So was it in thti days of Noah (Matt. ixiv. 38); so will it be in the end of the world (2 Pet. iii. 3, 4). 3. Complete. The cities with their inhabitants, the fields with their vegetation, were engulfed in the eulphureoue baptism and " turned into ashes." As overwhelming in its kind, though not as sweeping in its extent, as had been the previous submergence of the world by a :flood of water, the devastation sent uvon the fair Pentapolie of the Jordan circle was o. ghastly 1,hadow and premonition of that vengeance of eternal fire which shall yet devour the ungodly (2 Thess. i. 8). 4. Righteowi. It was a just judgment which had been richly merited, as the vi!,it of the angels had convincingly demonstrated. Indeed that previous unveiling of the filthiness of Sodom which had taken place may be viewed as having been designed to supply a visible justification of the righteousness nf the great Judge in consigning them to so disastrous an overthrow. And so before -~be infliction of the great day of wrath upon the impenitent and the ungodly there will be a revelation of the secret characters of all hearts and lives, that" thou mightest be justified when thou speakeet, and be clear when thou judgest 11 (Pe. Ii. 3). 5. Public. In particular, besides being experienced by the unhappy euJferere and observed by the trembling fugitives who bad sought refuge in Zoar, it was witnessed by Abraham, who gat him up early, and, looking towards Sodom, saw the smoke of the country ascending like the smoke of a furnace to heaven-a fit emblem of the terrible publicity which will invest the final judgment of a sinful world (Matt. xxv. 31-46 ; 2 Thess. i. 7-10; Re,. xviii. 9). III. THE FATE OF LoT's WIFE. 1. Intensely melanc!toly. Overtaken by the ~ulphureous storm, she was transfixed where she stood, and in a moment after wrupt in a sheet of saline incrustation. Affecting in itself, her doom was rendered nil the more impressive from the circumstance that she had so nearly escaped. ALs, nearly saved meana wholly lost I 2. Truly deserved. Contrary to the angel's inslructione, she had looked behind. Thus she had brought her tragic fate upon Lerself. Obedience would have saved her; disobedience proved her ruin. Whether en. XIX. 12-2il.J THE BOOK OF GENESIS.
Rhe was lost atcrnally it ia not safe to say, but her temporal destruction lrn.d been righteously incurred. 3. Solemnly suggestive. It was doubtless designed to teach many lessons, such as the danger of disobedience, the folly of delay, the severity of the Divine judgments, and the intensity of the Divine displeasure against sin. Lessons :-1. The difficulty of saving a good man (1 Pet. iv. 18). 2. The ability of God to punish sin (Heh. x. 31). 3. The danger of looking back (Heh. x. 26, 27, as). 4. The possibility of being nearly saved, yet wholly lost (Mark xii. 34),