I met an old schoolmate in a railway train whom I had not seen for years. We talked of old times for a while, and then I spoke to him about his soul. I found he had been associated with atheists and freethinkers. He told me that he should die like a dog. He maintained there was no future for the soul— that all the life he would ever know, would be here; that when he died that would be an end to him. I was glad to be able to tell him that I had everlasting life—that I should never perish. His eyes had that hopeless look in them that told their own tale. His was poor philosophy, the philosophy of despair.
Others try and argue away the eternity of punishment, and fly in the face of the teaching of the Bible in so doing.
Others endeavor to reason away the inspiration of the Scriptures. The Devil sets all these people to work. Before the cold eyes of these false reasoners, no glories shine beyond creation’s range. To their deaf ears no voices sound apart from earth. Their impassive hearts know nothing of the rapturous throbbings of eternal life.
But to those whose eyes are opened, what endless glories shine! The vistas of eternity open out in scenes of surpassing splendor; and as glory upon glory bursts upon the enraptured vision, they tell of others still to come, until the eternity of it all absorbs the soul, where all in all is God.
The Harvest is Past “Lift me up to see the fields once again father, the fields in which we reaped the corn a month ago.”
The dying man’s request was granted, and then exhausted by the effort, he sank back upon his pillow, and covering his face with his hands mournfully said, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I am not saved.” Jer. 8:2020The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. (Jeremiah 8:20).
The closing words were repeated slowly with a trembling voice, and then he lapsed into unconsciousness from which he never woke. That night he entered eternity, I fear, poor fellow, by the gaping door of procrastination. Once and again he had been awakened to see himself a sinner, in need of a Saviour, but he was so fully occupied with football and other amusements, that he seemed to get his convictions stifled as soon as they arose, and soon forgot all about God and eternity. After a short, unsatisfactory career, he was laid down to die, and passed away into the eternal world as I have told you.
What an end for a bright young fellow such as he was! What a death! What an eternity! Are you following in the same course, dear reader? How will it be with you when your thread of life is snapped, when you are called into eternity? Pause a moment and think. He was not ignorant, for his early years were spent in a godly home, where they taught him the truth of God, and sought to lead him to the Saviour. But he did not like to be restrained. He would be his own master; so he left his father’s house, and went in heart and soul for pleasures of every kind. Very soon, he showed indifference to the things of God, refused to go to hear the Word, and became a scoffer. Then he was brought home to die, and after a short illness, he passed into eternity.