I STOOD, this morning, on a hill-top on the borders of the Scottish Highlands, and, as I turned my back on the sunshine of the south and looked northward, I saw, in the grim and far off distance, the mountains wreathed by snow, and stretching their heads high into cloud and darkness.
It was a grand prospect, but full of foreboding. I could not but feel that, though the sky was clear and the surroundings tranquil, yet it was but the lull before storm, and the calm before the tempest.
A long and lovely autumn was fast dipping into the portents of a coming winter. I write as 1897 passes quickly away, and, taking my stand on the hill-top, I look forward to the year that is about to burst upon us. Serious thoughts fill my soul.
We are going, to advance on new and unknown ground. Ah! “What of the night?” What shall 1898 bring with it? Are the portents ominous? Do germs of judgment lurk in its bosom?
Years of mercy have fled already! Salvation’s long and lovely day has run its patient course, and has warded off the impending stroke. Can it last much longer? No; the Master of the house must rise, and the open door, sadly neglected, must be shut, and all hope removed!
The storm is gathering! and hence my call today!
Just as surely as I could detect, in these ominous snow-wreaths, portents of the coming winter, so, if we pause to look, not at the signs of the times, significant though they be, but at the Word of God, we shall clearly see that an event is speedily about to happen as to which all should be warned.
We warn you, reader, of the coming storm; we are most anxious that you should be forewarned, and thus, we trust, forearmed. It is advice we offer, and more than advice; it is entreaty, earnest and loud, that you should turn your eye onward, and learn that, as these years fly on, each one is bringing you nearer to the day of wrath. Do you recall the words of Paul to the company of Christians at Thessalonica. He said that they had been “delivered from THE WRATH TO COME!”
Well, eighteen hundred years at least have passed, and that wrath has not yet come! No; God, in mercy and long-suffering, has withheld the stroke. But it must come! Wrath must come! And why? Just because sin abounds; that is the reason. God and sin cannot co-exist. Sin must be dealt with, and God’s character be vindicated. Sin is unchanged. These centuries of mercy have not altered its nature, nor diminished its virulence. The awful sting remains. Pride, passion, strife slaughter, and death, revolve as of old. Man is identically the same at heart as he ever was, whatever the external influences may be.
And God is also the same. He never changes.
Then, how can this state of things continue? Must an infinitely holy God regard with indifference the corruption of His fair creation? Are sin and Satan to hold an eternal scepter in His rightful realm?
Nay, this cannot be! Sin must be dethroned, and Satan expelled. But how can this be accomplished but by force? Gentle measures are in vain! A peaceful millennium can only be inaugurated by a storm of judgment. Hence our words, “Wrath to come”!
It is of this, dear reader, we would plaintively and earnestly warn you. We read that: “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Them. 1:7, 8). This is the wrath to come!
Now, you will observe that vengeance falls, first, on those “who know not God,” and, second, on those who “obey not the gospel.” It is therefore obvious, that God might have been known by them, and also that they had heard the gospel, but had disregarded and disobeyed it. They had been in the place of outward privilege; but had not known, like Jerusalem of old, the things that belonged to their peace; and now they were hidden from their eyes by the veil of God’s retributive justice. God might and should have been known— the gospel should have been obeyed! They were guilty on each count. Friend, how do you stand in view of all this?
It is no question of age, or rank, or learning, or merit, as amongst men. The bare, startling, awful fact is, that the Lord Jesus is coming to take vengeance on all who know not God (do you know God?), and who obey not the gospel (do you obey the gospel? have its sweet, pardoning, saving, notes ever reached your soul?). And that, notice, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire! It is “wrath to come”; and, a thousand times over, we would proffer you a hasty but timely warning. What if 1898 should be the dread harbinger of this “wrath to come”!
Let not, we beseech you, the infidelity of the day, or of your own heart, lead you to treat these words as vain.
They laughed at Noah and his ark, in his day, just as some deride Christ today! They scoff at “the promise of His coming” even now, when its fulfillment is at our doors!
“But the day of the Lord will come”! Neither infidelity, nor laughter, nor scoff, shall deter the advent of that day! A rude awakening shall surprise the sleeping crowd! Ah! sleepers, awake!
The voice of wisdom cries aloud. God may be known today. The gospel tells of His love. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked―none! He desires that all should be saved.
The proof is at Calvary! Thither go in spirit, and learn its lovely lesson! The Son of God, given of the Father, bearing judgment due to sinners, exhausting the cup of wrath, completing all the work, crying aloud, “It is finished,” rising from the dead, ascending to glory, a Saviour still! This is the gospel, to be obeyed by simple faith; and thus God is known, and “the vengeance of eternal fire” escaped, and all the rich and precious blessings of redemption enjoyed! What a gospel!
Enjoyed? Yes! I write what I know, and what, for five-and-thirty bright and blessed years, I have known and enjoyed, and what, from the deepest depths of my heart, I would recommend to you who may, possibly carelessly, read these lines.
Christ is well worth knowing, and serving, and following. His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace.
That is true here and now, and it will be yet more true in glory. How different is the prospect of “eternal glory” with the Lord, than “the certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, that shall devour the adversaries.”
Dear unsaved friend, can you rest unmoved beneath that anticipation? Nay! Come, as you are, to the Lord Jesus Christ! He makes you welcome. His blood can cleanse from all sin. He is the future Judge, but He is the present Saviour. Yes, come to Him, and let this New Year be your first in salvation, in life, and heavenly joy, and in whole-hearted devotedness to His interests here, till He come for His ransomed people.
J. W. S.