A TRADESMAN, on his deathbed, once hurriedly called me in to make his will; and it was well no time was lost in attending to it, for before sunset that day he passed away to his long home.
His mind kept clear, but his body was so feeble that his hand had to be held for his signature, which was one mass of scribbles, but which sufficed, because it was duly witnessed.
When the witness had withdrawn, and the dying man had somewhat revived from the exhaustion of the business, which was very complicated, I remarked to him, ―
“Mr. L―, I have handed the will to your wife, and your affairs are now settled for time, and are all right for this world. May I ask, are they also all right for eternity and the next world, to which you are so rapidly hastening? For these eternal realities are of infinitely more importance than the fleeting things of time and sense.”
“Well, sir,” said he, “I have been thinking a good deal about that too since I fell ill, and have been anxiously waiting to see someone about it, and am glad you have named it now, for I have driven both matters very late.”
“Well, Mr. L―, I am glad to hear you are, anxious about that too. Then what is your will about your soul for all eternity?”
“Oh,” said he, “I want to be all right; but I have been a wicked man―a real bad one.”
“That’s right,” I added, “let all out to God, for you are just the very one for Jesus; just the one, to be a monument of His grace and mercy, for He did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, ―having no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Jesus died for real bad ones. He died, the Just, for the unjust, that He might bring us to God; and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Do you, Mr. L―, see that you deserved the wrath and judgment, Jesus received on Calvary’s cross at the hands of the Holy God you have sinned against?”
“Yes, I do indeed!” said the dying man.
“Then, do I understand that, as a helpless sinner, you receive Him as your Saviour and substitute” “I do, most gladly.”
“You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and are saved, are you?”
“Indeed, I do.”
“Well, if you really do, Mr. L―, your soul’s affairs are all right for eternity and the next world. You have bowed to God’s will, and have set to your seal that God is true. Your soul’s eternal affairs were settled by your Substitute on the Cross, and the whole thing is in His safe keeping. Your life is hid with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. And when we see Him, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
A delay of just another hour or two and this man would have been forever too late for both his temporal and spiritual affairs to be settled favorably. His earthly ones would no doubt, in time, have been surmounted, with difficulty, confusion and perhaps some quarreling among the relatives: but oh! his immortal soul’s eternal ones never could have been favorably settled, no, not even in the eternal lake of fire. Friend, thank God you are not yet too late to know your soul’s salvation settled; but mark, God says: “Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2)). It is right enough to set your earthly affairs straight, if you possess but a shilling in the world you are leaving, but how sad to think of how often the soul’s eternal things are put off till the last, and, it is to be feared in very many cases, till it is forever too late. It is very solemn; but there is but one instance, so far as we know recorded in God’s Word, of a soul being saved at the “eleventh hour,” and that one is the thief on the cross. One such case there is, that none might despair; only one that none might presume.
Therefore, do not for one single moment presume upon your deathbed to get such a momentous question settled. Furthermore, you might never see a deathbed, as is so with many. How fearful for the soul to wake up in hell and find Satan having had his will, and too late to alter. For, as the tree falls so it lies. That rich man who lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torments, wanted an alteration. He craved a drop of water on the tip of a finger to cool his tongue, and a message of warning to be sent to his five brothers still on earth, ―but it was too late. The reply he got for himself in hell was, that there was a great gulf fixed between himself and help; and for his brethren, that if they believed not Moses and the prophets, neither would they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. He might have left all his earthly affairs straight, and as clean as a new pin, but what about that then! Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
Reader, what about knowing your eternal affairs settled ere it be too late? Ponder it, we beseech you!
When this world had the option of choosing either a Saviour or a murderer, they chose the murderer, and Pilate delivered Jesus to THEIR WILL to be crucified. Permit me to ask, Are you still on the world’s side, whose will got rid of Jesus? or have you bowed, and has your heart sided with God, and received God’s Christ? Because the answer to this question lets out the whole secret.
God is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up “(2 Peter 3:9, 109The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:9‑10)). Where will your soul be then? “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that thy wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die?” (Ezek. 33:1111Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11)).
Jesus said, “Whosoever WILL, let him take the water of life freely.”
WILL YOU take it, and know your immortal soul’s eternal affairs favorably settled forever?
J. N.