THERE are many events, constantly occurring in every part of the world, which are warnings to the indifferent and hardened. Sometimes an event transpires which shocks the community, or plunges it into grief, or else fills it with fear and trembling; and then, after a while it is forgotten, having been dismissed from the mind, just as though it were a disagreeable dream. But the all-wise and gracious God intends them as warnings, and as such they should exercise the conscience of the unsaved. Alas! how very few are exercised by God’s repeated warnings.
Surely He means them as exhortations of mercy, to flee from the wrath to come by receiving in faith the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour.
A young man in all the energy of youthful vigor and health lived in one of the picturesque villages near the great city of New York. He was frequently spoken to about the Saviour’s love in dying for sinners, and warned against treating lightly the gospel which he had heard so often. But all with no avail. He remained quite indifferent and hardened to the love of God.
One day he was swinging up and down upon a swing which was attached to a huge branch of a large tree in his garden I am going to hell, and higher and higher he swung in the full enjoyment of this pastime. An acquaintance, passing by the garden, hailed him with the customary salutation, to which he jestingly but profanely replied, as the swing bounded high in the air, “Good-bye, D —; The words had barely left his lips, when the great branch broke, throwing him violently to the ground, and crashing into his skull. His friend called for aid, and tenderly and anxiously they lifted him up and carried him into the house. A physician was summoned, and at once pronounced his injury to be a fracture of the skull, and alas! fatal. In a short while he died — unexpectedly taken into eternity with these awful words, the very last he ever uttered, upon his lips. What a warning from God we have here for persons who listen again and again to His glad tidings, yet only to harden their hearts against His Grace!
Unconverted reader, unexpectedly death, too, may come to you. In the very best of health today; a corpse tomorrow! But is this all? No, no: “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)). If you reject Christ as your Saviour now in this world, you must face Him as the Judge in all your sins when heaven and earth pass away, before the great white throne (Rev. 20:1212And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. (Revelation 20:12)).
God’s message of mercy, testifying of His love and grace to sinners, fills the length and breadth of the world. It tenderly pleads with all to believe in His Son as the only Saviour. Alas! the vast majority, young and old, pass through this world as if there was no eternity beyond it; eager in the pursuit of fancied pleasure, or the accumulation of riches, hardened in indifference to the blessed news of salvation by faith in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. Reader, that vast majority are on the downward road to hell! Do not you be amongst that number. The Word of God — from the lips of Jesus Himself the statement is definitely and clearly made that God loves — tells you that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)). And, in 1 John 4:99In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9). To, we read: “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” And again in Romans 5:8,8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) “God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Oh! what wonderful love! Dear unconverted reader, does it not melt your heart? Does it not incline you to come by faith to Jesus, with your load of sins? to come just as you are in your state of ruin and guilt, and accept Him as your Saviour; and pour out your heart in thanksgiving to God for such a great salvation and such a loving Saviour?
The Lord may come at any moment to take up His Church to be forever with Him (1 Thess. 4:15, 16, 1715For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:15‑17)), even before you have finished reading these words, and if you are not saved, if you have not had faith in His finished work upon the cross for your salvation, you will be TOO LATE. Are you amongst those who, cleansed from their sins by the blood of Jesus Christ, are expecting the Lord to come? If not, you will be left behind to pass through the judgments that God will pour out upon this earth, after the Church has gone to heaven, and these judgments will end in the eternal condemnation of those who have not obeyed the gospel (2 Thess. 1:7, 8, 9,7And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (2 Thessalonians 1:7‑9) and Jude 1515To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (Jude 15)).
“In the lone land of deep despair,
No ray of heavenly light shall rise;
No God regard your hopeless prayer,
No Saviour call you to the skies.”
W. E. S.