Revelation 21:27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defiles, neither whatever works abomination, or makes a lie… The other day our Australian colonists were urging us on to what might have been a very formidable struggle with France. They pleaded, and that justly, that it was almost fatal to the well-being and security of the communities on the east coast of Australia that France should have its convict station in such close proximity. Men steeped in triple murders and every unnatural abomination made their way across from New Caledonia from time to time to a colony planted with fair and virtuous homes. Of course we all sympathised with the colonists; we should resent the existence of a passable gulf between our homes and culprits of that sort. If by an income tax of sixpence in the pound we could make the strip of sea an impassable gulf, we should all be ready to do it. When man has passed impenitent into eternity, his sin is just as much an abomination to the God of light and the children of light as the crime of the French convict is to us. How is it that we sympathise with the colonist, but question God's right m fixing this impassable gulf? Had He no right to protect His children in their new home? Heaven would be no heaven if the proud Pharisee could come sweeping by, wounding some poor saint of God at every step, and seeking to press God's emancipated sufferers into new serfdoms. (T. G. Selby.) Parallel Verses KJV: And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. |
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