Revelation 14:11

For ever and ever. — Or, unto ages of ages. The imagery of the smoke going up reminds us of the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:28; comp. Isaiah 34:10). They have not rest by day and by night, who worship the wild beast, &c. Sin, which is first embraced as a delight, becomes soon an inexorable tyrant, by an awful retribution compelling men along the routine of the evil habits which they loathe while they long for, and long for even while they loathe them: there is a destiny of unrest in all sin. “The wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest.” It is well that solemn words like these should be read by the light of the most certain of all truths — the power sin has of stamping its indelible features upon the human character, and giving to habit the force of a destiny.