THE late Sir Edward Denny has left behind him a record concerning a man named William Dove, who was condemned to die for the crime of poisoning his wife.
It would appear that in the earlier years of his self-willed course he had faithful Christian friends, and one who, with deep longings, especially cared for his conversion to God.
After his trial and condemnation the pleadings of one of those friends of early days came back to his memory, and were committed by him to paper. They were these, and underlined as below:
“William, if you are determined to go to hell, you shall wade through seas of tears and (walk) over mountains of prayers.”
What a solemn path to pursue! Yet there is something worse than this in the way of every gospel rejecter. To wade through affection’s burning tears, and walk over a heavy heart’s groaning prayers, is not the most condemning feature of his downward course. He tramples on the heaven-sent testimony of the cleansing value of the blood of Jesus, and that is infinitely worse. To disregard the tears and entreaties of a fellow-mortal betokens woeful hardness, but to coldly ignore the testimony of God’s love in the gift of Jesus to trample upon the precious blood, to resist the pleading of His gracious Spirit, is, beyond everything, appalling.
To reach a felon’s cell, a murderer’s doom, by such a road is terrible enough to contemplate, but to reach damnation everlasting by such a road is to reach it with lashings of conscience unbearable. Think of it! A way to hell past Calvary! How awful to be found in such a path! Reader, where are you? Has such a course, till now, been yours? Then for your soul’s sake, and in God’s name, we call upon you to stand and consider. Beware of the doom of Capernaum. “And thou, Capernaum which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell” (Luke 10:1515And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. (Luke 10:15)).
To look back from the depths of hell and think of the many times you were called upon to halt and listen to the wondrous tale of Calvary will be enough to make you wish, for all eternity, that you had never been born at all.
But you have been born, and may yet be born again, thank God. Oh that it may never be said of you, “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you” (Acts 13:4141Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. (Acts 13:41)).
There is only one way to heaven, and that is by way of Calvary, through faith in Him who hung there. The penitent thief went that way, and every saved sinner since. But there is a way to hell by Calvary also. The other, the rejecting thief, went that way. Beware, lest you go too.