SOME time ago, in a town in the North of Ireland, a fire broke out, which caused a good deal of excitement and alarm, so widespread were its ravages. For some time after it was a general topic of conversation. One evening before the excitement had subsided, a Christian man, while getting into a ‘bus to go home, was observed by two gentlemen who knew him, who determined to have some amusement out of him with reference to the fire. One of them asked him in a jocular manner if he had heard of the fire. He replied he had, and remarked rather solemnly there was going to be a greater fire some day, quoting the well-known scripture (2 Peter 3:10), “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.” To this the gentleman scoffingly replied, “Surely God would not burn up His creatures like that. You say God is a God of love, and yet you mean to affirm He is going to burn us all up. He surely would not do that without at least giving us a fortnight’s warning.”
“God is light,” replied the Christian, “and must punish sin. He cannot clear the guilty. He has manifested His love in the fullest possible way in the gift of His own beloved Son, but man has despised and rejected it, and has manifested the wickedness and enmity of his heart by murdering the One who came in lowly grace, the expression of that love; and do you think God will overlook what man has done to His beloved Son?” The gentleman was rebuked, and could only reply, “God will surely give us at least a fortnight’s warning.” “I have often warned you,” solemnly replied this Christian man, “and I solemnly warn you today, that ‘except you repent you will surely perish.’” He then left the ‘bus, saying, “Remember you are on your warning.” That was his last warning, for, solemn to relate, on that day fortnight, while sitting in his office at mid-day, this poor scoffer dropped off his chair a lifeless corpse.
Dear reader, if you are unconverted and still in your sins, has this not a voice to you? If death were to steal into your chamber tonight and lay its cold clammy hand upon your heart, and you were ushered into the presence of God, how would you meet Him, the God against whom you have sinned? How, I ask you, would you meet those all-searching eyes, piercing into the innermost depths of your soul? How could you stand before the presence of such infinite holiness? He “is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and cannot look upon sin.” Ah there is but one answer. The lake of fire would be your everlasting portion; you would join in that everlasting wail of despair, cast out from the presence of a sin-hating God, whose grace and mercy you had all your life spurned.
“What horrors shall roll o’er the Christless soul,
Waked from its death-like sleep!
Of all hope bereft, and to judgment left,
Forever to wail and to weep.”
And now, dear reader, as this Christian man said to the scoffer, I would say to you, “Remember you are on your warning.” It may be your last. God alone knows. Do not, I beseech you, put the solemn question of your soul’s salvation away from you, but face it now ere it be too late. Remember God has said, “He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” How often has God spoken to you in one way and another, and yet you are still hardening your neck and rejecting His Son. You have, like Felix (in Acts 24), been putting off till a more convenient season, which, be assured, will never come. Then why put it off even for another hour? “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Tomorrow is the devil’s time. Now is God’s time. “Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
“Now! Now! Now!
Tomorrow too late may be!
Oh, wherefore the moments in madness waste,
When Jesus is calling thee?”
Oh, I beseech you, dear reader, in love to your precious never-dying soul, to take your place before God as a poor, guilty, worthless, hell-deserving sinner, owning what you are, your only title to come being your sinfulness, and hear Him say unto you, “Your sins, which are many, are all forgiven.” “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” “Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” “To him gave all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” God declares you are a sinner, both by nature and practice; but listen to what He also says, “If any say, I have sinned (remember it is I have sinned, a personal matter), and perverted that which is right, He says, deliver him from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom.” The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the ransom. If you take your place as a confessed sinner before God, allow me, on the authority of His Word, to tell you, that He has been perfectly and fully satisfied, yea glorified, about all your sins by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, “who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,... by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
If God is satisfied, well may you, my dear reader. Believe on the One who sits on the throne of God, who once bore your sins on the cross, and is now in glory without one of them, and you are immediately and eternally saved. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).
P. W.