“But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside,
into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 8:11-12
I picture someone standing at heaven’s gate, and demanding, “Let me in! Let me in!” What for? “Because my mother is in there.” Your mother had nothing to do with you. If she was holy, she was holy for herself; if she was evil, she was evil for herself. “But my grandfather prayed for me!” That is of no use: did you pray for yourself? “No, I did not.” Then grandfather’s prayers, and grandmother’s prayers, and father’s and mother’s prayers may be piled on the top of one another until they reach the stars, but they never can make a ladder for you to go to heaven on. You must seek God for yourself; or rather, God must seek you. You must have an active experience of godliness in your heart, or else you are lost, even though all your friends were in heaven.
Excerpt from “Heaven and Hell” sermon delivered in the open air on September 4th, 1855, to an audience of 12,000 persons.
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C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)