Hebrews 3:7-8 Why (as the Holy Ghost said, To day if you will hear his voice,… It is recorded of Archias, a chief magistrate, in one of the Grecian states, that he was unpopular in his government, and excited the hatred of many of the people, who conspired against his life. The day was arrived when a fatal plot was to be executed. Archias was more than half dissolved in wine and pleasure, when a courier from Athens arrived in great haste with a packet, which contained, as it afterwards appeared, a circumstantial account of the whole conspiracy. The messenger being admitted into the presence of the prince, said, "My lord, the person who writes you these letters conjures you to read them immediately; they contain serious affairs." Archias replied, laughing, "Serious affairs to-morrow"; and so continued his revel. On the same night, in the midst of that noisy "mirth, the end of which is heaviness," the assailants rushed into the palace, and murdered Archias, with his associates; leaving to the world a striking example of the evil of procrastination. In ten thousand affecting instances, something like this has been the conduct and the fate of men respecting the concerns of eternity. They have been warned, but, like the unhappy prince whose case we have recited, they have said, "Serious things to-morrow," and when in an unexpected hour their souls have been "required," they have left the world exclaiming, "How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!" (S. Lowell.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,WEB: Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, "Today if you will hear his voice, |
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