“I don't want to die just now, for if I do, I am afraid I shall have to go below.”
SOLEMN words these, uttered as they were on the very brink of eternity. They proceeded from the mouth of one who, whilst in health and strength, and with no immediate prospect of death before him, had affected to disbelieve in and ridiculed the thought of "Hell." Not so now, how-ever, for as he approached his end, the dread and terrible reality of that very place loomed up before his anxious, apprehensive mind with irresistible force, and wrung from him the confession of his fear lest he should after all find himself in that awful place, the name of which he dared not mention. He was not, as might be supposed, an open, flagrant sinner, but an amiable, upright man, as far as his conduct towards his fellows went, pleasant and kind to all. Yet he was a stranger to Christ, without God and without hope in the world.
He had heard the gospel, and, now at the last moment, he realized that he had neglected to avail himself of the wondrous provision which God in His grace had made to meet the need of a poor self-condemned sinner. He had trifled with the message—made light of it—as though it were not a real thing, or as though it concerned others, not himself. Now all is changed, all is real, it is the chamber of death. A few more unconscious hours, and he has passed into the presence of that One whose loving appeals he had so often treated with indifference and levity, sinking, it is feared, into a hopeless, Christless grave. Oh, bitter beyond all conception must that moment be, when the soul awakens to find the last spark of mercy has really gone-extinguished forever and ever! Oh, endless pang! Appalling doom! Reader, shall it be yours?
“WHAT IS A MAN PROFITED, IF HE SHALL GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD, AND LOSE HIS OWN SOUL? OR WHAT SHALL A MAN GIVE IN EXCHANGE FOR HIS SOUL”