A FEW years ago, in a small village where God, through special Gospel meetings, was working by His Spirit, and arousing many careless sinners through the preaching of the Word, two young men —companions—might have been seen night after night together conversing on some subject which, by the expression of their looks, was to them of the utmost importance. It was no scientific problem they were trying to solve, nor was it any scheme for advancing their position in life that was giving them such deep concern.
The two young men were miners, and they had no great ambition to secure anything in this world beyond their food and raiment by honest labor.
They were respectable young men; had never been guilty of any outward wickedness; drinking and smoking were abhorred by them; indeed, their parents and minister thought they should have “joined the church." What then was the burden that these young men seemed to be carrying about with them? The burden of the one was sin, the consciousness that he was a sinner before God, and that, unless some change was wrought and deliverance secured, the lake of fire would be his eternal dwelling-place. It was not a question with him how few nor how many sins he had committed; he knew and felt that he was a sinner, and that God was holy and righteous, and could never have such an one as he was dwelling in His presence. The burden of the other was the concern he had for his dear companion, as he listened, night after night, to his tale of distress. It was not the sense of sin, nor the fear of coming judgment, that was putting him about. If his companion had got deliverance, he would have been quite contented away from God. The famine had not yet arisen in his soul.
Week after week passed by, yet no change was brought, except the continual change that every moment effects, viz., brought nearer to death and hell, or nearer to Christ and glory. At last the deciding time had come. It was, now or never; today, or not tomorrow. It was Christ and God's salvation, or procrastinate and perish. Reader, this may be the last sound of God's voice in mercy to you; how will you treat it? On the Sunday evening the preacher had proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!” (John 1:2929The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29).) The sinner burdened with the sense of sin heard the message proclaimed, he was asked to remain to an after-meeting for anxious souls, but he was ashamed to be found on the "penitent form." The enemy of souls whispered in his ear, “You know where the preacher is going to after the meeting, and you can see him there;” and so he left the hall, and loitered about until the Lord's servant had gone into the appointed house.
Walking up, he put his hand on the latch of the door to go in; but, before the door was opened, again the successful enemy whispered to him, “You don't know who all may be in the house, perhaps the very ones that you don't wish to know your private and individual concerns." He listened to the tempter, he halted, and at last resolved to go his way for this time, and watch for a more “convenient season." Reader, have you been listening to that God-dishonoring, Christ-rejecting, soul-ruining word of the enemy,—Time enough yet?
Two or three days after this night's experience, the convicted youth told to his companion the tale of his deep distress on this special Sunday night, adding, " I wish I had gone into that house on Sunday night, and decided for Christ." The companion never having realized the awfulness of being in an unsaved condition, with the wrath of God abiding on him (John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)), could offer him no consolation, but out of pure sympathy advised his friend to make sure work next Sunday night, and get the matter settled then. Alas! alas! both were calculating upon time that God had never promised.
Reader, are you saved? Are your sins all forgiven? You say, I mean to be saved; I expect to get the question of my sins settled before I leave this world. Take care! If hitherto you have lived without God and salvation, He may say to you this very night, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Luke 12:2020But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? (Luke 12:20)).
Listen, and take warning from what befell that young man, who arranged to be saved by Christ the following Sunday,—just other three or four days for a healthy young man to live, surely he would not die before then. As the village bell struck ten that night on which the fatal decision to put off salvation till Sunday—was made, these two fond friends parted, never to meet on earth again. Both got up in health next morning, and went to their daily toil underground. God brought one safely home; but, as the other was wending his way to the bottom of the shaft, he met with a fatal accident, and in about fifteen minutes after he had left his neighbors at the "working face" he was found a corpse. No one heard his dying words,—if any,—nor saw him die, and his Sunday and God's now will stand eternally apart.
God and eternity were brought very near to that other young man who had been spared, and it was now no longer concern about his companion that solemnized his mind, but a downright sense in his soul that if he had been called away hell would have been his portion. Reader, where will you spend ETERNITY? Such was his fear of death that for three days he could not be persuaded to go down the pit, lest the fate of his companion should be his own; and when he did go to his work again, he ran in perfect terror from the least appearance of danger. "The wicked flee when no man pursueth” (Prov. 28:11The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion. (Proverbs 28:1)). Day after day only brought deepened distress; vows and resolutions were made, but the most of them were never kept; religious observances were strictly attended to, but still no deliverance came. Sins which he at first thought trifling now appeared heinous, even to him, in the sight of God; and every fresh ray of light that flashed into his soul, only gave him to see his sins as a great mountain between his soul and God. He also came to see that even a strictly religious life in the future could never remove that black lake-of-fire-securing catalog of guilt that stood against him (Acts 13:3939And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)). Every resource in himself was now exhausted, without deliverance being secured; he looked to man, but looked in vain, for no "days-man" could be found to bring God and him together (Job 9:3333Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. (Job 9:33)). And now, when that poor sinner had been brought to the dust, God said to his soul,” Look unto me, and be ye saved "(Isa. 45:2222Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22))." For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5, 65For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (1 Timothy 2:5‑6)). The storm was now calmed, the troubled conscience set at rest, and the eye no longer saw that black catalog of guilt (it was gone) but Christ,—Christ for God, Christ for his sins, and Christ for his heart! Christ all in all.
That happy soul could now sing with assurance,
“—There is life in a look at the crucified One,
There is life at this moment for thee;”
and,—
“My heart is fixed, eternal God,—Fixed on Thee,
And my eternal choice is made,—Christ for me.”
Go back with me now, dear reader, and “consider your ways." Perhaps you have been taught since your childhood that you are a sinner; you have felt, too, at times what a pity it is you are what you are; you have tried to improve yourself, and perhaps your ways may bear favorable comparison with the ways of many who say they are going to heaven. Saul of Tarsus, while he was a persecutor and blasphemer, was, as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless (Phil. 3:66Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:6); 1 Tim. 1:1313Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. (1 Timothy 1:13)). His righteousnesses were as filthy rags (Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)), and so are yours; and deep down in your soul, if you are not born again, as you consider these divine realities in the light of God and eternity, you feel that you have not " peace with God." If this is your condition, remain in it no longer; come out in your true character, and say, “Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son," and God the Father will have compassion on you, and give you the kiss of reconciliation, and far more (Luke 15:20-2420And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. (Luke 15:20‑24)). Perhaps you have taken up this Gospel Messenger to read because you are alarmed about your lost condition before God.
If so, don't lay it down until you are saved. By all the free and loving messages of salvation in God's Word, I beseech you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved now (Acts 16:3232And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. (Acts 16:32)). By all the terror of coming judgment (2 Cor. 5:1111Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. (2 Corinthians 5:11)), I would persuade you not to be like that young man who put salvation off till "next Sunday,"—a day he never saw. Receive and believe now that soul-saving word. “Look unto me and be ye saved? ... for I am God and there is none else.”
It is the writer of this article who was left, while his friend was taken, and who looked to Jesus and lives; and, after these years of "looking off unto Jesus," through grace he still prays and sings,—
“O, fix my earnest gaze,
So wholly, Lord, on Thee,
That, with Thy beauty occupied,
I elsewhere none may see.”