The sands in the hour-glass of the departing year are fast running out. Ere they reach the vanishing point, it would be well for all who read these lines to ask themselves the solemn question: "How do I stand with God?”
Your eyes, dear ones, may never witness the dawning of the New Year. Eternity, with all its tremendous realities of life and death, may well arrest our steps as our souls look onward to "tomorrow." The stream of Time is fast approaching the ocean of Eternity; and somewhere in its boundless expanse your destiny and mine draws every moment nearer. The great question, "Amos 1 saved, or am I lost?" demands immediate answer.
During the present year of grace many unexpected things have happened which may well make us "Consider our ways" even in the light of the omniscient eyes of Him who reads us through and through.
Is it not high time, dear reader, to awake out of sleep and seriously to consider where you are going to spend "ETERNITY"? The passions of evil men, the unbroken self-will of countless millions, the ever-increasing greed for wealth, the spiritual wickedness in high places, these have characterized the now closing year. Even the vast amount of mere lifeless religious profession but adds to the conviction that the "perilous times" of the "last days," foretold in 2 Tim. 3, are upon us.
As it was in the days of Noah, so is it now; and the judgment of a doomed and God-rejecting world draws nearer every hour. Everything around us declares in unmistakable tones that "the end of all things is at hand." Notwithstanding all this, and the waxing worse and worse of "evil men and seducers," yet God's long-suffering and grace still lingers over His guilty creatures. Mercy's door still stands open wide. The blood of His crucified Son still pleads for pardon for lost and ruined sinners.
And you, dear one, let me lovingly ask you, "Have you, for yourself, ever yet felt your own personal guilt before God, and your own deep need of salvation? Are you still content, as blinded by Satan, to go on living in sins until you die in sins and are forever lost?" "If ye believe not that I am He," saith the Son of God, "ye shall die in your sins"... and—"after this the judgment.”
Have you ever yet spent even ten minutes at the feet of Jesus, owning and confessing your sins? Have you earnestly cried to Him from your soul, "Lord, save me"? Why not fly at once for refuge to that precious Savior who died for our sins and rose again for our justification? His loving entreaty is still going out: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
If you will not listen to that Voice, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" Nothing in this world can ever satisfy the longings of your immortal soul; surely not the surging whirlpool of fleshly excitement and sinful pleasure in which you are now engulfed. They but drag you down to the depths of everlasting woe and eternal loss.
Jesus alone can satisfy your heart's hunger. Delay no longer, I implore you, but come at once to Jesus, the Savior,—just as you are, just where you are, and just now, for tomorrow may be too late! As risen and glorified, He waits with open arms to receive and save you NOW. The very moment you rest your guilty soul in simple faith on His atoning blood you will be able to sing from your heart
"Oh, depth of mercy, can it be
That precious blood was shed for me?”
Receive Him NOW, dear lost soul. HE IS WORTHY. And in the moment you receive Him into your heart, your eternal destiny becomes the Father's house, the courts of glory, the everlasting Presence of Him who so "loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”