Many preachers are giving up the old ideas about the fall and total depravity of man. People are not often plainly told that they are guilty sinners before a holy God. The sermons of our forefathers―who used to press this so constantly upon their hearers―are looked upon as relics of the dark ages.
There is, however, one preacher left of the old school, and he speaks today as boldly as ever. He is not popular, though the world is his parish, and he travels over every part of the globe, and speaks in every language under the sun. He visits the poor; he calls upon the rich, and preaches to people of every religion and many of no religion; but the subject of his sermon is always the same.
He is an eloquent preacher―often stirs feelings which no other preacher could reach, and brings tears into eyes that seldom weep. He addresses himself to the conscience and the heart. His arguments none are able to refute; nor is there any heart that has remained wholly unmoved by the force of his weighty appeals. Most people hate him, for many quail in his presence; but in one way or another he makes everybody hear him.
He is neither refined nor polite. Indeed, he often interrupts the public arrangements, and breaks in rudely upon the private enjoyments of life. He frequents the shop, the office, and the mill; he appears in the midst of legislators, and intrudes upon fashionable and religious gatherings at most inopportune times. His name is DEATH.
You cannot take up a newspaper without finding that he has a corner in it. Every tombstone serves him for a pulpit. You often see his congregations passing to and fro from the graveyard. The sudden departure of that neighbor―the solemn parting with that dear parent―the awful gap that was left in your heart when that beloved wife, that idolized child, was taken ―have all been loud and solemn appeals from this old preacher. Soon he may take you for his text; and in your bereaved family circle, and by your graveside he may be preaching to others. Let your heart thank God this moment that you are still in the land of the living―that you have not, ere now, died in your sins!
You may get rid of the Bible. You may ridicule its teachings. You may despise its warnings. You may reject the Savior of whom it speaks. You can get away from the preachers of the gospel. You are not compelled to go to either church or mission; and you can cross over to the other side of the street if there be an open-air meeting. It is in your power to burn this, paper, and every other tract that comes into your' possession.
But what will you do with the old preacher of whom I have spoken?
Dying men and women, consider the prospect that is before you! Your little day will soon be passed―your pleasures end. After all, you "must needs die," "as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27).
Pause and consider this matter. Is there not a cause for death? Is it by mere accident that creature with such powers and capacities should come to so ignominious an end? There is but one answer to these questions, and as long as the old preacher goes on his rounds he will continue to proclaim it. Listen! "By one man SIN entered into the world, and death by sin." Rom. 5:1212Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12).
The fall of man is no mere theological dogma, but a fearful reality evidenced by the world's history and our own experiences. Sin is not simply an ugly word in the Bible or on the preacher's lips; it is a dark universal power which blights the world by its presence. "Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5:1212Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12).
You, my reader, are implicated in this matter. You have sinned; upon you the sentence of death has passed. One second after your death, it will be a matter of no consequence to you whether you died in a palace or in a cellar. But your whole eternity will hang upon the state in which you die. If you "die in your sins," having spurned the cleansing blood of the Son of God, your doom is sealed. All unbelievers "shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Rev. 21:88But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8).
Which of the two following epitaphs will be yours?
Or
The old preacher never spoke so loudly, or in such solemn tones, as when Jesus went to Calvary. Divine holiness could not make light of sin. The full penalty of guilt―the wages of sin in all its dark and dread reality―passed upon the sinless Substitute. He took our place in death and judgment, that we might have His place of acceptance and favor before God.
You may die unsaved; you will not die unloved.