“FIRE! ETERNAL FIRE!”
Illustration★★★★Evangelist Sam Jones related this story in one of his sermons: In the city of Atlanta, the Wilson House Hotel caught fire some years ago. The servants ran from room to room to awaken the guests. A servant went to one room where there were two men, awakened them. One jumped out of bed, aroused the other, but with a moan and a groan the other man went to sleep again.
The guest who was up dressed hurriedly and ran to the bed to shake the other man and said, “Get up, the house is on fire.” The other man simply moaned and groaned and went back to sleep. His friend then pulled him out of bed, stood him on his feet and said, “The house is on fire!
Hurry, hurry, or you will be burned up!” The man when turned loose fell back into bed with a moan and a groan, and went to sleep again.
The next day, as they were raking among the debris of the building, they found his bones all charred and burned. And many a time on earth, Heaven seems to long to arouse us and pull us away from our sur- roundings and stand us on our feet and cry, “Fire! Eternal Fire!” and yet there we stand, and at last among sulphurous flames and eternal perdition, our bones lie burned and charred forever.
The point
A hotel guest who repeatedly ignored his friend's urgent warnings that 'the house is on fire' died in the flames, picturing how people ignore Heaven's warnings until it is eternally too late.