IT is a solemn fact that “unreasonable and wicked men,” as Paul calls them, can make light of the most serious things and even scoff and blaspheme when God’s judgments are being meted out.
The voice of His witnesses disturbs men. They are happy when their testimony is silenced. In this vision we see the Christ-rejecting mass celebrating with carnal joy and fleshly merriment, the fact that God’s messengers are dead and, as they fondly hope, no one again will prod their guilty consciences.
Even as men who have no heart for Christ at the present time celebrate the memorial of His birth by sending gifts one to another, so when His witnesses have ended their testimony, they will rejoice and send presents to their equally guilty friends because the tormenting voices of the witnesses are heard no longer. How loudly this proclaims the incorrigible evil of the human heart when unsubdued by divine grace.
“No room for mirth or trifling here,
For worldly hope, or worldly fear
If life so soon is gone—
If now the Judge is at the door
And all mankind shall stand before
Th’ inexorable throne.”