Candles Put Out

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 4
 
Once, while making a long journey by train, I found myself sitting opposite a man whose appearance attracted me. We soon entered into conversation, and I found that my companion held an important post on the west coast of Africa, and was about to return to Lagos.
"A very unhealthy country, is it not?" I asked.
"Yes, very. Out of a population of two hundred Europeans, eighty of them died off in three months," he replied. "I have been down with fever and in hospital for weeks together, but I am rather lucky; they were just dropping like flies all around me.”
I shuddered, and inquired whether this terrible wiping out of human life did not make him think seriously of eternal things. With a shrug he assured me it had not the slightest effect on him.
"We never think we shall die," he said. "Why, I remember a young fellow was brought in when I was in hospital. He was put in the next bed to me. We could touch one another, we were so close. He didn't seem to be very ill, so I proposed a game of cards. We were going to play for money, and he insisted it must be for cash. A check wouldn't do, he said, as I might be dead before the morning, and nobody would cash it for him. The fellow was dead himself that night!”
This awful callousness made me tremble. How reckless of life was my companion! He was as hard as flint, and no words of mine could move him.
The wicked "spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him?.... How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in His anger." Job 21:13-1713They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. 14Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. 15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? 16Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me. 17How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger. (Job 21:13‑17).
It is awful to die unprepared and thus to fall into the hands of the living God.. After death comes judgment; and Christ is the only refuge for the sinner in that day.
"Why are ye troubled when death comes in view?
Christ giveth rest.
Though after death there comes judgment too,
You may be blest.
Christ bore God's judgment poor sinners to save, He gained the victory o'er death and the grave; Oh, now believe Him, and life you shall have; You shall have rest.”
Reader, if your life were to end suddenly, if your candle were put out would you find yourself in "outer darkness"?
Do not trifle with your soul, I beseech you. Your time on earth will soon be over, and then-?
Is Christ your own personal Savior? Have you fled to Him for refuge from the wrath to come? If not, do so at once, for you know not what a day may bring forth.
Now is the accepted time.
Now is the day of salvation.
"To him that worketh not,
but believeth on Him that
justifieth the ungodly, his
faith is counted for
righteousness."