NEVER shall I forget the painful impression made on my mind one morning I was travelling through the county of D—. The train stopped at a little colliery village, where it picked up an emigrant party consisting of three or four families. There was but a minute or two to take in the sad scene of relatives being parted, perhaps forever. The men had that hard stolid look about their faces and eyes which told the tale of grief; the women and children were crying bitterly as they said their sad farewells. Just as the train moved off, I saw what I shall never forget. An aged mother was standing at the far end of the platform gazing eagerly after the retreating train. Her gray hair was flying in the wind; her hands were clenched together, and firmly pressed against her breast, as if to still the tempest within. Tears were streaming down her furrowed cheeks, as she shrieked out, “Are you gannin, Jack? Oh, it will kill me! Oh, it will kill me!”
The thought flashed across my mind, “If the parting for time be so bitter, what about the separation for eternity.”
My dear reader, if you have relatives saved by the blood of Christ, and you pass into eternity unsaved, remember you will have to part with them, not for time but for eternity. Theirs will be the unending joys of heaven, thine will be the agony and remorse of hell. Stay! more than that—you will part company with your boon companions, for although they may spend eternity with thee, yet in hell there is no society. Each one will be like Judas who went unto his own place (Acts 1:25). Stay more than that.
Truly and well has the poet sung that solemn dirge over the lost soul: —
“Thy songs are at an end; thy harp
Shall solace thee no more;
All mirth has perished on the grave,
The melody that could not save
Has died upon death’s sullen wave,
That flung thee on this shore.”
Earth with its waves, and woods, and winds,
Its stars, and suns, and streams,
Its joyous air, and gentle skies
Filled with all happy melodies
Has passed, or with dark memories
Comes back in torturing dreams.”
Stay! thou wilt have to turn thy back upon the blessed Bible, upon all that is of God, upon all that is holy, good, and true. Awful fate! But stay, dear reader, how is it that thou art still alive? that God has not yet come in judgment upon this poor world, hoary-headed in it sin? It is that “the Lord... is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Man’s hatred in killing Jesus only threw open the floodgates of God’s love. In virtue of that sacrifice God can now woo sinners with His love. He is even now seeking to win thy poor heart as you read these lines in The Gospel Messenger. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). If you go on unsaved, the truth is you are on your road to hell, trampling on the Saviour’s love. Revelation 21:8 gives us a list of the company there: “But 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.” The sin of rejecting the Saviour is put before the worst sins that we can think of, thus showing how God will judge us if we refuse His wondrous offers of mercy.
Now, dear reader, while time and opportunity are yours let me persuade you to accept Christ, and trust His blood-shedding to put away all your sins, for “without the shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb. 9:22), and “the blood of Jesus Christ his (God’s) Son cleanseth from all sin.” Jesus says, “Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:47). Why not trust Christ now? and then instead of thy portion being “outer darkness,” and “wailing and gnashing of teeth” for all eternity, it will be the joys of heaven forever. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:4). “And there shall be no night there: and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 22:5).
A. J. P.