Revelation 8:13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the middle of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe… Before the fifth angel sounds his trumpet, a vision is granted of a flying eagle, which, with "a great voice," declared "Woe for them that dwell upon the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels who are yet to sound!" Corrective judgments have already been manifested, but the full fruits of evil, in themselves judgments and designed for correction and restraint, have not been developed. The voice of the great eagle anticipates them, and prepares for their delineation. The general principle, therefore, claims thought at present - woe follows from the working of evil. I. THE INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCE OF WRONG DOING IS SUFFERING. 1. The laws of righteousness are absolutely and only good. 2. They describe the true path of the human life. 3. In the observance of the true laws of life - the laws of righteousness - conditions of blessedness are secured; for it cannot but be that life held according to the laws of life is only good. 4. Any departure from the laws of life - righteousness - must bring a proportionate disturbance, pain and sorrow. II. THE DIVINE WISDOM AND BENIGNITY SHOWN IN MAKING THE CONSEQUENCES OF WRONG DOING PAINFUL. By this means men are warned away from wrong. The sharp pain of burning is a merciful provision. The hand incautiously laid in the fire might be consumed for want of the sharp twinge of pain to apprise of danger. It is well that the way of transgressors is hard. The prickly hedge guards the path of life, lest men straying from it should fall into untold evils. III. THE PAINFULNESS OF WRONG DOING A JUST WARNING AGAINST TRANSGRESSION. Although virtue that is founded on a mere escape from the evils of disobedience is a low form of virtue, it is nevertheless a worthy motive for avoiding that its consequences are painful. IV. THE NATURAL CONSEQUENCES OF WRONG DOING AN ADMONITORY INDICATION OF THE DIVINE DISPLEASURE, and a worthy expression of it. It is a testimony on the level of the human heart. Higher testimonies to be given. But the cold and thoughtless arrested by these means. V. IN PUNISHMENTS BY PAIN LIES THE PLEDGE AND FIRST ELEMENT OF MORAL CORRECTION. The punishment and bitterness of evil not a final end. High moral purposes are graciously contemplated. "Woe, woe, woe!" is the sad prediction of the ever coming bitterness of all wrong doing. - R.G. Parallel Verses KJV: And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! |
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