An Urgent Invitation

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 4
 
I was standing on the sidewalk of a crowded thoroughfare. The passers-by were hurrying along, each intent on his own business, while I waited looking for a cab. I had an important business appointment to keep, and there was no time to be lost. As I thus stood I was startled by a voice in my ear. Someone was speaking to me, and distinctly came the words: "Come to Jesus. There's no time to be lost!"
I heard the speaker, but before I could reply, he had vanished in the crowd.
What effect would these words have had on you, reader? What echo would they have awakened in your heart? To me they were sweet, and I would have gladly grasped the hand of him who uttered them. With joy I could have said that I too was journeying toward the city whose builder and maker is God.
As I hailed a passing cab and drove off another thought came. If there is no time to be lost in the keeping of an urgent appointment in this world, do we think with the same eagerness about the Lord's invitation to meet Him in the next?
"Come 'to Jesus! There's no time to be lost!"
Think of this, reader. Jesus said, "Come unto Me." Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28). Have you come? And if those words had been addressed to you in the street, what answer could you have given?
Many hesitate and plead difficulties in the way. When the Lord Jesus was in this world He said to Peter, "Come." Then it was far harder to obey Him than it can be for you now. The Lord was walking on the water, and Peter was in the boat. Yet at the Savior's word "Come," Peter descended from the boat, and "he walked on the water to go to Jesus." Matt. 14.
Indeed "there's no time to be lost." No one can say when the door of mercy will be closed. Then that blessed "Come to Jesus" shall have been uttered for the last time. Do you wish to be left outside? Oh, no. As a fisherman said a few days ago when speaking of sudden deaths. "Everyone wants to go to heaven; but they forget that in order to be with God by and by, they must make acquaintance with Him now." Yes, NOW, for "there's no time to be lost!"
Sinner friend, "Come to Jesus: There's no time to be lost!"
Come to the Savior, make no delay;
Here in His Word He bids you obey;
Here in our midst He is standing today,
Tenderly saying, "Come!"