It flashed across the wires from the city of Glasgow to an Ayrshire post-office—a telegram, addressed to a young man. In order to escape the restraints of a Christian home, he was to sail the following day by an emigrant steamer for the United States. The message arrived in the evening, just as he was about to go to a social gathering to bid farewell to a few companions. They, like himself, were "without God" in the world.
He opened the telegram and read it. "Where will you spend eternity?" This was the message, and it went like an arrow to his conscience. The signature was of one who had long prayed for his poor lost soul, and who had, no doubt, been guided of God in taking this unusual way of reaching him.
The solemn question spoiled the evening's fun for him. Stifle it as he would, the question came up again and again, even after he was far away.
Three, months after he arrived in the new, world he was induced to go to, hear the gospel preached by a fellow countryman. Long since he had been awakened to his danger. Eternity was a dreaded reality to his soul. Now fully convinced of his need, and disappointed in the "life" he had left his home to seek, he humbly came to God as a lost sinner and claimed the lost sinner's Savior.
Ever after, in his testimony and life for Christ, he made free use of the question which God had used to his own awakening: "Where will YOU spend eternity?”
Can you answer this, Reader? "Eternity—WHERE?" You must spend it somewhere. You are not like the beasts that perish; you have been formed to live forever. You must spend eternity either in the enjoyment of God in heaven, or in the reaping of sin's doom in hell. You cannot annihilate yourself, even if you would. But you may know God's mercy, prove His saving power, and be a possessor of His salvation. This is God's one way of salvation—there is no other. It is plain and simple, so that none need mistake it. But to the rejecter, eternal hell is sure!