SUICIDE while of unsound mind," was the verdict of the coroner's jury after inquiring into the death of a retired publican, aged 60, who had shot himself, and in whose pocket was found the following letter:
"The money found on me will do to bury me where I fall. Good enough for a dog like me. Going mad with remorse for my guilty soul. I am mad, mad, mad!”
What agony of soul must have been his! No wonder he was of "unsound mind." Without God, and without hope in this world, he sought to find peace in oblivion. Cruel delusion!
How often does Satan bolster up his victims with imaginary happiness for years, and then casts them aside as worthless, and the last we hear of them is the verdict of a coroner's jury.
“Remorse" for his "guilty soul" had driven this poor man mad. His dying words show that after a long life, from which God had been excluded, he had at last wakened up to the reality that he was "guilty before God." What a fearful awakening!
My unsaved, Christ-rejecting reader, take warning. Remember that you, too, are "guilty before God," and that sooner or later you, too, will awaken to its solemn reality, if not in Time, then assuredly in Eternity; but if, alas! the latter, too late then, for there is no pardon beyond the tomb.
Awake now, and see yourself as God sees you. Read Rom. 3, 9 to 19, and if you are honest with yourself, you will confess before Him that those verses contain a picture of yourself, and that you are indeed "Guilty before God.”
Then for you, my reader, there is good news. Your guilt can be forgiven, for the judgment of sin fell on Jesus when on the cross He was "made Sin." During those three awful hours of darkness at Calvary, when God hid His face from that blessed One, the whole question was settled. Jesus gave Himself "a Ransom for all." Thank God, we can tell you He has risen again; and if you turn to Him now with a repentant heart and a contrite spirit you will get the blessed assurance that "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out." (John 6:37.)
Delay may be fatal, for your awakening may come too late, and on that great judgment day you too, will realize what it means to be "mad with remorse" for your guilty soul.
Jesus died that you might be spared that fearful experience. He drained at Calvary the cup of judgment that sin deserved; and to-day He pleads with you to turn to Him and live.
Sinner, beware how you "neglect so great salvation." Turn to Him now, and He will lead you into the blessings of the Gospel, and you will go through life with this song in your heart:
"Conscience now no more condemns me,
For His own most precious blood,
Once for all has washed and cleansed me,
Cleansed me in the eyes of God.”