HOW many of those we have seen and known are passed from time into eternity! But as yesterday, they were alive amongst their friends, or at their daily work, like ourselves; but now they are gone. Such will be the reader’s experience, as well as mine, if he only look back over even one year.
Just now three special cases come before me. Two young men, just starting in the world, take fever, and in two short weeks their life-span is ended; they pass into eternity in a state of unconsciousness. Time was soon over to them, and eternity begun, but where? People speak of how the time has to be spent, referring, it may be, to a brief hour or two.
Dear reader, let us ask ourselves this solemn question, “Where am I going to spend eternity?” Time is soon over. Eternity once begun, never ends. All in eternity is a fixture, ― “a great gulf” is fixed between heaven and hell, between the saved and lost. Oh, my friend, on which side of that gulf will you be for eternity? In eternal happiness, or eternal torment? eternal joy, or eternal woe? eternal glory, or eternal judgment? In an eternal day of bliss spent with the Lord Jesus, or an eternal night of misery spent with the devil and his angels? Oh, dear reader, on which side shall your eternity be spent? These things are realities, and have to do with that soul of yours which can never die. Oh, turn not a deaf ear to the voice of pleading and warning.
As regards the young men referred to, I cannot tell how it fares with them. If trusting in Jesus, if resting on His work, and cleansed by His blood, sure I am, on God’s authority, they are saved and happy for eternity. If there was no Jesus, no Saviour, no precious blood, as their souls’ resting-place, then too God’s Word must speak, and that only of judgment, for “he that believeth not, shall be damned” (Mark 16:1616He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:16)).
A third case, a young girl of only seventeen, passed away after a few days’ illness. There is an old saying, “All men think all men mortal but themselves.” What folly this is. These three were, only a few weeks ago, as likely to live for years as you or I are. Their sudden removal speaks to you and me of the uncertainty of time, of the certainty of death. “It is appointed unto men once to die” (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)); or again, the Lord Jesus Christ is coming “quickly.” In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the saints are caught away from earth to be forever with the Lord. That is their eternity;
reader, what is yours to be?
“Be ye also ready.” Are you ready? A death-bed you may have, or you may be cut down suddenly. Death is one terminus for time. The coming of the Lord is another. It must be settled in time where we are to spend eternity. You and I are responsible to have it settled. God tells us in His Word how it can be settled. Our sins deserve the judgment of God, and one sin must as surely shut us out of God’s presence as ten thousand. Oh, think of the sins of one short year, or month, or week; sins of thought, and word, and deed; but the greatest sin, is that of unbelief. Oh, let me earnestly entreat of you, dear friend, if still in your sins and unbelieving, even now to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour. There is no other Saviour. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He died for sinners, and therefore for you. Salvation, full and free, is proclaimed. Now is the day of salvation. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Not “if,” or “perhaps,” or “maybe;” but “shall be,” the moment you believe.
The only way to be ready for death, or Christ’s second coming, is to trust simply in Him who died and rose again. The Lord Jesus Himself says, “Be ye also ready.” Oh, hasten to Him. The ark of old rose above all the waters of judgment, and Noah was safe in it; so Christ alone, and those in Him, will be beyond the reach of judgment for ever. Yea, the Saviour has already borne the judgment for all who believe in Him. It is past; the storm burst on. Him who was on the cross as the sin-bearer. There, see Him, bearing all suffering, all for you, dear reader. Now risen, and seated at God’s right hand, I thus know His work is finished.
God is satisfied; and believing, I am free. To be ready, my sins must be put away. To be ready, I must have salvation. To be ready, I must have eternal life. In short, to be ready, is to have Christ as my all.
“O sinner, to Jesus Come now; O sinner, to Jesus come now;
O come while you may, while still ‘tis the day Of grace, salvation, and love.”
T. E. P.