View source for Last night Sam was at "The Fighting Rooster".

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<p>(James Smith, &quot;"http://gracegems.org/Smith1/god_is_merciful.htm">God is Merciful&quot; 1858)<br />
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<em>&quot;God is merciful!&quot; </em>said old Mrs. Jenkins, as she came from the funeral home where <em>drunken Sam Voller</em> was just laid out. <strong>Last night Sam was at <em>&quot;The Fighting Rooster&quot;</em></strong> and drank too much beer, then he quarreled, a fight followed, and Sam got an unlucky blow — and now he has gone to appear before his Maker, to give an account of the deeds! <br />
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Yes, Mrs. Jenkins, God is merciful — but not <em>always</em>. God is merciful — but not to <em>all</em>. There was no mercy for the world of the ungodly, who perished in the <em>flood</em>. Nor was there any mercy for the inhabitants of <em>Sodom and Gomorrah</em>, who were consumed by fire from heaven. <br />
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Neither can we see, though we do not wish to judge harshly of our poor fellow-creatures, how there could be mercy for Sam — who <em>lived </em>in sin, <em>died </em>in sin, and died in <em>consequence</em>of his sin. &quot;He who <em>confesses </em>and <em>forsakes </em>his sin — shall find mercy;&quot; but how can he hope for mercy — who hardens himself in sin, and perseveres in it until summoned to appear before God to give an account of it?<br />
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&quot;There is mercy with God — that He may be <em>feared</em>,&quot; not that He may be <em>trifled </em>with, and <em>insulted </em>to His face!<br />
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Mercy may now be obtained by any one and every one who seeks it. But the Lord, who is <em>now </em>so merciful and gracious — will by and by manifest His wrathful indignation; and say to those who now refuse to come when He calls them,<em> &quot;Depart from me, you cursed ones, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!&quot;</em> Terrible words — called forth by persevering in sin, and inflicting a terrible doom! May no reader of these lines, ever endure the threatening contained in them!<br />
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In vain for mercy now they cry;<br />
In lakes of liquid fire they lie;<br />
There on the flaming billows tossed,<br />
Forever — O, forever, lost!
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