David Marks was one of the most influential and powerful evangelists in the 19th century. He was born to Christian parents in 1805 and he began to have an awareness of God in his early years.
One day as he was watching some flax burn, it set his mind on thinking about the Lord. He heard the stories about hell and the fires that were there. Watching the flames, a feeling of dread came over him as he contemplated the awful existence just a moment in hell would be like.
“What would I do if the wrath of God fell on earth?” he asked himself. After some long thought, he decided if the Day of the Lord would come, he would go and hide down in the well. Excited, he went to his mother to share his plan.
“Ah, my son,” she said. “The water will boil and the earth will burn.”
Changing gears, he told of a place in the rocks that he knew of where he could run and hide in.
“But the rocks will melt,” his mother replied.
Overwhelmed and desperate, he said that he would simply die and escape God’s wrath in the grave.
“My child. Your hope is in vain for the dead will awake and come out of the graves.”
Devastated, the young David Marks went outside and began to meander through the fields, pensive about that coming day, its certainty, and the that he was unprepared for it.
Finally, in resignation, he put his hand over his heart, looked toward heaven, and said, “God. Be merciful to me, a sinner.”
The question that we all must answer is where will we go?
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:28-29)
