Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/82

 and get what comfort he can from the flesh-pots; or he may (if he choose) leave that country, and go to the land of promise—"a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of oil, olive and honey."

But if he choose the latter course, he voluntarily places himself under the Lord's government and guidance, and may expect at times the chastening hand of paternal love to keep him in the right way. "Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." He must endure all the perils and hardships of the journey. He must go "through that terrible wilderness, wherein are fiery serpents and scorpions and drought—where there is no water."

But multitudes choose to remain and do remain in Egypt. They are not willing to accept the conditions on which alone they can rise out of their natural into a heavenly state of life. They are not willing to deny self, take up the cross, and follow the Lord in the regeneration. They are not willing to deny themselves the indulgence of their selfish and inordinately greedy propensities. They have no desire and make no effort to overcome these propensities, or to bring them into due subjection to higher and nobler loves. They prefer to follow the bent of their inclinations, and to do as