“I COULD not stand those words, sir, as I sat here in my chair day by day. That sentence, ‘After this the judgment,’ facing me on the almanac you gave me, was more than I could bear. They troubled me so much that I got my wife to cut them off, but I cannot get rid of them. They trouble me continually.”
Evidently such was the case, as I saw “the Good News Almanac” nailed to the opposite wall, but minus the bottom portion, on which the words which were troubling him had been printed.
Unconverted reader, such words might well trouble him. They might well trouble you, for it would be an inexpressibly solemn thing for you to die unprepared.
How will you meet the judgment of a righteous sin-hating God? For though He loves the sinner (and He has proved it in the gift of His Son), yet He hates sin. Though “keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,” yet He “will by no means clear the guilty” (see Exod. 34:7). How will you meet One who cannot pass by a solitary sin — One whose divine claims must be met — One whose glory must be upheld and vindicated. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29).
No wonder then that people shrink from the judgment of God.
It is, however, my joy and privilege to tell you, as I told the troubled one of our narrative, of Him who has borne the judgment of God against sin — of Him who has “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust” — of the “one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6).
Yes, the Lord Jesus has met all the claims of God. He cried On the Cross, “IT IS FINISHED.” In heaven He sits exalted a Prince and Saviour.
What then remains for you to do? When the Lord was here upon earth He was asked by some — “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” Mark well the reply — “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:29). Beware of seeking to merit salvation by your own good works, which are as “filthy rags” in God’s sight.
“Cast your deadly doing down,
Down at Jesus’ feet.
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
Gloriously complete.”
I wonder whether you will pay heed to this warning, or will life’s journey end as sadly for you, if not as tragically, as it did for the subject of our narrative.
Exactly a week after the above conversation took place I again visited the man’s house, and was greatly shocked and surprised to hear of his strangely sad end. In a fit of intoxication he had walked into the canal, and thus met his death. Perhaps he had sought to drown the voice of God in drink and mirth with boon companions.
Sadly we leave him, but we turn to you, unsaved reader. “God is not mocked.” The reaping follows the sowing. Do not trifle, we beseech you, with your precious soul.
“Time is earnest, passing by;
Death is earnest, drawing nigh.”
God is earnest, Christ is earnest. Alas! the devil is earnest. Be you in earnest. Be warned in time. “Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, Now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).
J. G―D.