When the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot. Genesis 19:15.

WERE these personages angels, or divine appearances? It matters not: they were messengers sent from God to save. In any case they teach us how to deal with men if we are to arouse and bless them. We must go to their homes ("They turned in unto Lot," verse 3); they stated the case ("The Lord will destroy this city," verse 14); they urged and persuaded ("Up, get you out of this place"); and they resorted to a loving violence ("The men laid hold upon his hand," verse 16). Picture the two angels with all their four hands occupied in leading out Lot and his wife and his two daughters.

I. THE RIGHTEOUS NEED TO BE HASTENED.

1. In what? In matters of obedience to their Lord. Few can say, "I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments."

· In coming out from the world. "He lingered." "His wife looked back" (verse 26). The urgency of the command which says, "Come ye out from among them; be ye separate" shows how loath we are to "rise up and come away."

· In seeking the good of their families. "Hast thou here any besides?" (verse 12).

· In general quickness of movement in spiritual things. "Escape for thy life" (verse 17). "Haste thee" (verse 22).

2. Why? The flesh is weak. Lot was an old man, too much tinctured with worldliness, and he was away from Abraham, the nobler spirit, who had helped to keep him right.

· Perseverance is difficult. "I cannot escape to the mountain."

· Sodom has a sluggish influence. We often traverse the "Enchanted ground," where sleep seizes on the traveler.

· When our worldly occupation is incessant, and takes up most of our thoughts, we are hindered from decision.

· Idle leisure is still worse. Men with nothing to do in the world seldom do anything in religion.

3. By what means? By reminding them of their obligations, their opportunities, and the days already wasted.

· By leading them to consider the flight of time and brevity of life.

· By warning them of the sure ruin of their impenitent friends.

· By setting before them the fact that delay in duty is sin, and leads to other sins.

II. THE SINNERS NEED TO BE HASTENED.

1. Sinners are very slow and apt to linger.

· They have settled down in the Sodom of sin. Like the sluggard, they desire "a little more folding of the arms to sleep."

· They are bound by many ties to the City of Destruction.

· They do not believe our warning. "He seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law" (verse 14).

· They trifle with our message when they dare not contradict it.

· Delay is Satan's grand device for their ruin.

· Procrastination baffles our persuasions. Delays act like bales of wool dropped over the wall of a besieged city to deaden the blows of a bat tering ram. Felix quieted his conscience by the idea of "a more convenient season."

2. Our business is to hasten them.

· We must be in earnest ourselves, as these angels were.

· We must also be patient, and repeat our pleadings,

· We must be resolute, and lay hold on their hands.

3. We have many arguments with which to hasten them.

May the Holy Spirit make them see—

· Their imminent danger while lingering.

· The sin of loitering when God commands them to escape for their lives,

· The fitness of the present above any possible future.

· The uncertainty that any available future will come"