Hell is populated with the victims of harmless amusements!
Will men never learn, that the way to Hell is through the Valley of Deceit!
When Satan approaches to charm us, it is not as a grim fiend, gleaming from a ghastly cloud--but as an angel of light, radiant with innocence. His words fall like dew upon the flower--as musical as the crystal-drop warbling from a fountain. Beguiled by his deceits, he leads you to the enchanted ground.
Oh you, who have thought that the way to Hell was . . .
as bleak and frozen as the Arctic,
as parched and barren as the Sahara,
strewed like Golgotha with bones and skulls,
reeking with stench like the valley of Gehenna
--witness your mistake! The way to Hell looks pleasant! It is a broad highway. The enchanted victim travels on. Startled for a moment, the victim pauses; gazes around upon the flowery scene, and whispers, Is it not harmless? "Harmless," responds a serpent from the grass!
You who are meddling with the edges of vice, you are on this road--and utterly duped by its enchantments! The leprosy is all over you--its blotches and eruptions cover you! Your feet stand on slippery places, whence in due time they shall slide, if you refuse the warning which I raise. They shall slide down to that fiery abyss below you, out of which none ever come!
Will men never learn, that the way to Hell is through the Valley of Deceit!
When Satan approaches to charm us, it is not as a grim fiend, gleaming from a ghastly cloud--but as an angel of light, radiant with innocence. His words fall like dew upon the flower--as musical as the crystal-drop warbling from a fountain. Beguiled by his deceits, he leads you to the enchanted ground.
Oh you, who have thought that the way to Hell was . . .
as bleak and frozen as the Arctic,
as parched and barren as the Sahara,
strewed like Golgotha with bones and skulls,
reeking with stench like the valley of Gehenna
--witness your mistake! The way to Hell looks pleasant! It is a broad highway. The enchanted victim travels on. Startled for a moment, the victim pauses; gazes around upon the flowery scene, and whispers, Is it not harmless? "Harmless," responds a serpent from the grass!
You who are meddling with the edges of vice, you are on this road--and utterly duped by its enchantments! The leprosy is all over you--its blotches and eruptions cover you! Your feet stand on slippery places, whence in due time they shall slide, if you refuse the warning which I raise. They shall slide down to that fiery abyss below you, out of which none ever come!
(Henry Ward Beecher, "Lectures to Young Men on Various Important Subjects" 1849)
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