HURRIED off! Yes. It was sharp, short work at last. A sadder end it would be impossible to conceive; for it is greatly to be feared that she was hurried off in her sins. Her history was one of hardened indifference; but it closed with a cry of undisguised alarm. To live in open adultery was grave enough; but to this was added the crowning sin of all; namely, the persistent refusal of Him who would willingly have welcomed and pardoned her, had she bowed before Him as a repentant one. Was it not to such as she that the blessed Savior once uttered those memorable words, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:1111She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. (John 8:11))? Well may our hearts weep for such, and say, Oh, why will ye reject such a Savior?
When the final summons reached this poor woman, her own lips were made to tell how totally unprepared she was for it. Who could measure the depth of bitter anguish expressed in the last words she was heard to utter on earth― “Oh, the judgment! OH, THE JUDGMENT!”?
A wasted life, strewn with wasted opportunities, lay behind; an upbraiding conscience spoke loudly from within; and certain judgment, well-earned judgment and nothing but judgment on before.
How sad the picture; but, for her, how real! Had she but listened to the Savior’s call, how different it might have been! All her sins would then have been blotted out, and her guilty conscience purged. In place of the Judge’s righteous and withering sentence, “Depart from Me,” the Savior’s smile of love would then have been her bright welcome to the “everlasting habitations.”
Alas! it is to be feared it was not so. Though often warned and entreated, though many a gospel tract had been put into her hand, she was wedded to her sins, and, to all appearance, made shipwreck at last—eternal shipwreck.
Within a few days of the above sad incident, old John― lay dying in one of the wards of a workhouse in Suffolk. A Christian lady, with whom John had enjoyed sweet fellowship, having at his request been sent for, had called to see him. Approaching his bed, he warmly grasped the outstretched hand, saying, “I think I am going home.”
She replied, “You know whom you have believed is Christ precious to you?”
“Oh yes; He is everything to me! ‘The chiefest among ten thousand; the altogether lovely One.’ He has done everything for me―satisfied God about all my sins, and about all I was (in myself). You know I told you how very bad I had been for years; but the blood has put away everything. Wonderful! All of His grace.”
A day or two afterward the same lady said to him (speaking of his relatives), “You will be sorry to leave them.”
He replied, “Sorry I do not know they are saved; not sorry to go. To depart and to be with Christ is far better. I shall soon see Him, and be with Him.”
The second bed from old John’s was occupied by another old man; but what a contrast spiritually! “Do you know the Lord Jesus?” inquired the visitor.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t you know what the Lord Jesus came for? It was to save sinners such as you and I. Don’t you know you are a sinner?”
“I shouldn’t like to say I was a sinner,” he replied. The kind visitor lingered beside him for some time, telling him the old, old story of God’s wondrous love—how He gave His beloved Son to die that sinners might be saved; that only those who were washed in His precious blood could go to be with Him in heaven; and then repeated her question, “Do you know that you are a sinner?”
Raising his head, with all the little strength he had, he said, “No; I should not like to say I was a sinner!”
Next day, when the visitor called, his bed was empty. He had gone! GONE WHERE? How solemn the silence that follows such a question under such circumstances I Now, reader, here are three ways of departing. Beware, lest either the first or last be a pattern of your own. You may have too much self-respect to pursue the path of open immorality, you may not be reduced to such poverty as to be called to gasp your last on a workhouse bed; but to die without Christ is to be lost forever, whether your eyes are open to see it in this world or the next.
The last of the three denied that he was a sinner; and, therefore, had no conscious need of a Savior. His unbelief deliberately shut the Savior out, and closed the door against God’s salvation. “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:3232I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:32)), was the Lord’s own utterance.
The first could not deny that she was a sinner; but would not have the Savior. She preferred her sins to Him.
But blessed old John confessed himself to be a great sinner, embraced the great Savior, and became the happy possessor of God’s “great salvation.” For him the judgment of his sins was a past thing. He believed on Him who had received their full due upon the cross; and, through faith in His precious blood, he passed safely into the promised rest; not alarmed by God’s judgment, but calmed by His love.
Now, reader, consider these three positions, and allow us, in view of them, to ask you with loving earnestness the first question that ever fell upon the ear of guilty man in this world, “WHERE ART THOU?” (Gen. 3:99And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? (Genesis 3:9).) Give God an honest answer. If called to die this moment would you be filled with judgment’s alarm, or with heavenly calm?