NONE who have ever found themselves in any danger will treat such a question with carelessness or indifference. No matter what the danger may be, the one great question for all such is this —
How shall we escape?
Standing on the shore some fine but breezy day, you watch that trim little craft flying before the wind. Its four occupants are enjoying the exhilarating sensation, as far removed from all sense of fear as you who are admiring the picturesque scene from the firm and solid beach. Next moment they are taken, when a sudden squall strikes their sail and capsizes their boat. In one instant they find themselves in the utmost peril, and a piercing cry for help rends the air. Why? There is danger.
Away in the city of Chicago some few months ago the Iroquois Theater is crowded one Saturday afternoon, mostly with ladies and children. It is a worldly scene — devised by the world, for the world’s amusement. Nothing there to awaken careless sinners in view of eternity! Nothing there to feed the people of God with living bread, nor to satisfy them with living waters! Nothing to remind travelers to eternity of the need of their souls! Nothing to bring God and Christ, His blessed Son, before the mind! All is gaiety, laughter, and frivolity, when lo! flames shoot across the stage, and, panic-stricken, the vast audience springs to its feet, and shrieking, rushing, trampling one another down in the mad haste to escape, vainly endeavors to reach some place of safety. Why? There is danger. In a few moments hundreds of unfortunate victims lie in heaps, trampled beyond recognition. It is a sickening sight.
Only this very month a heavily-laden pleasure steamer is gliding down the harbor of New York, when volumes of smoke are seen rising from one of the store-rooms, and quickly she is enveloped in flames. To beach the ship seems the only chance of escape, but before this can be done, a surging mass of women and children, nearly one thousand, have perished in the flames, or been drowned within speaking distance of the shore.
Ah, there is danger everywhere. Not an hour of night or day but what everyone is exposed to dangers of all sorts and kinds. These are dangers of the body. But what of the soul? How few appear to take any interest in this!
Perhaps the reader has never felt any need to escape. Why is this? It is because he has never realized his danger. But, there is danger! And once again a loving Saviour warns you of your danger, and invites you to escape.
Danger! you exclaim, — what danger? There is danger, friend, because you are a sinner. Every man’s conscience tells him that one verse of the Bible at any rate is true: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)).
Yes, there is danger — universal danger; and that, because all have sinned.
There is danger because God is holy; He cannot look at sin; He cannot tolerate it in His holy presence. And if you stand before Him in the judgment-day with sin upon you, banished you must be forever from His face.
There is danger, because the judgment is at hand. God has appointed the day in which He will judge the world in righteousness: He has ordained the Judge, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who is now ready, willing, and able to be your Saviour.
There is danger because eternity will never end, and as you enter it, so will you spend it. If you enter it unsaved, you will be forever unsaved. If you enter it unforgiven, you will be forever unforgiven. If you enter it without Christ, you will be forever without Christ.
But thank God there is a
way of escape.
It is a way of God’s own devising. Christ died for guilty sinners, that guilty sinners might escape the judgment that their sins deserve. Christ suffered for our sins, that we might never suffer for them. Christ bore the awful judgment of a sin-hating God, that you and I, dear reader, might never have to bear it. Yes, thank God, there is a way of escape; there is only one, and that way is open for you, whoever you may be. But, “how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:44God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? (Hebrews 2:4)).
But not only is there a way of escape, there is also a
time for escape.
And that time is now — today. Perhaps you think that there is plenty of time — that you are too young to think of these things. Remember that most of the hundreds that perished in a few moments in the Chicago Theater, and in the “General Slocum” steamship, were quite young people. How hard to have young lives cut short so suddenly in the bloom and freshness of boyhood and girlhood. Yes, indeed it seems so; but such things happen, and happen frequently in this sad world; and therefore we urge upon all our young readers, that now, this moment, is the very best time to escape from the coming judgment, by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have lately seen a large number of young people rejoicing in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why not trust Him now?
One word more — If you persist in rejecting the Saviour’s loving invitation, it may soon for you be
impossible to escape.
It is said that while the fearful fire was raging in the Iroquois Theater, a newspaper reporter, anxious to describe the gruesome sight in the evening press, remained to watch its progress, confident that he would himself be able to escape. As one tier of seats after another became enveloped by the devouring flames, he withdrew from gallery to gallery. At length the furnace of heat became intolerable, and he turned to flee, but only to find, too late, that every door of exit was blocked with corpses, piled high one upon another. He perished in the flames. Why? Because he neglected the way of escape, and despised the time of escape. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” The way of salvation now offered to you is a perfect one. No one ever yet came to the Lord Jesus Christ —
“With this the contrite sinner’s plea,
Thou lovest me —”
and was turned away unsaved. No. Salvation is a certainty for every one that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Oh! what a Saviour is Jesus the Lord,
Well might His name by His saints be adored!
He has redeemed them from hell by His blood,
Saved them forever, and brought them to God.
Thousands have fled to His spear-pierced side,
Welcome they all have been, none are denied;
Weary and laden, they all have been blest,
Joyfully now in the Saviour they rest.”
A. H. B.