NOT for a single moment am I supposing that you are thinking, or that you desire to think, about the eternal welfare of your precious soul. Neither am I expecting you at this moment to thank me for seeking through the means of this paper to lead your thoughts in this direction. It may be it is the very thing with which you are earnestly engrossed. If so, it is cause for thankfulness to God. But I am not taking this for granted. I assume you are careless, and wanting to be let alone, and seeking to persuade yourself that the evil day is far distant, and that when it does come it glooms not so darkly as it has been painted.
Now let me in all love and faithfulness to your soul say to you, that not only has the horror of that day of wrath never been overdrawn, but that no human language is able to convey anything but the faintest impression to the mind of man of the awful blackness, and darkness, and terribleness of that hour of the withering indignation of Almighty God. I have frequently heard the eloquence of mortals, laboring to portray the gloom and terror of that hour, but not only did it fall far short of the reality, but it was so horribly distorted by the imagination, and such a human (not to say devilish) tinge was given to the whole affair, that it was made perfectly repulsive.
Scripture is grand in all its utterances, and the finger of God is, visible in all its scene-paintings. “Whether it be the glories of heaven or the miseries of hell, the touches are divine. All is full of simplicity, supremely solemn and majestic―nothing of the littleness of the mind of man reveling in great things. There is no high coloring no harrowing details. God’s pictures are alone in solitary grandeur. If it is the day of reckoning, God meets His adversary, and the scene closes in everlasting night upon the enemy of God. Eternal love has been refused, and eternal wrath must be borne. The holy Son of God, who knew what He had to meet, going to the cross to bear wrath as a substitute for His people, was “sore amazed and very heavy, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” No human mind has ever had anything but the faintest conception of the awfulness of the danger to which you are at this moment exposed if you are unsaved.
Look the matter straight in the face, I beseech you, and do not say, he is a fanatic who has penned these lines. These are words of truth and soberness. You may tell me there is no danger to fear, but I am not so sure that you are able to satisfy your own mind as to this. That you are not as sensible of your danger as you ought to be, I am ready to admit; but that you are quite certain no danger exists is another thing. And in a case like the present, you need perfect assurance, because it would be a fearful thing about which to be mistaken. It is not the risk of health, wealth, or fame―all these might be lost and found again in your short history on earth; but to make a mistake which would be the everlasting wreck of all your joy and happiness―ah! you want to be quite sure there can be no danger of this. You must not have a peg to hang a doubt upon. You must have clear uncontrovertible proofs that this hellfire story is a baseless fable. Nay, you must not swallow an opiate to dull your senses and keep you from thinking; you must be certain that you have heard the whole case with an unbiased and a sound mind, and that there is not a shadow of foundation for the smallest fear, before you can have an hour’s rest. Have you thus examined the report? Have you found it baseless? Have you the proofs that it is so? Then rise up and be the first man to give them to the world.
Do you tell me there are no proofs to establish the dread theory. You are very much in error, but allow me to may that is not the point. It is reported that the Lord will take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel. Do you know for certain He will not? In natural things men seek to be on the safe side. You do not need to cry “FIRE” twice in a crowded house: Let the alarm be once sounded, and you will bring every one to the street who can fight his way to the door. He will see about the truth of the report once he is in a place of safety. Ah, you say, there is no time to be lost there. And are you sure you have so much time at your disposal? As I write this a woman lies dead in the opposite house across the way. She was seen on the street yesterday—she is a corpse today.
Take out your watch and put it to your ear. How quickly the moments of your life are flying into the buried past! You cannot recall one of them. You will soon be finished with your responsible life here on earth. The sexton may be toiling at your grave tomorrow. Are you sure all will be well with you? What does your conscience say? Is all calm within the breast? What does the groaning creation around you say?
What does the state of this world say, where you dare not speak of God or His Christ except at stated times and places for fear of losing caste? Does not every groan of this miserable creation declare that “an enemy hath done this,” and does not its devil-ruled population show you that there must be a day of vengeance?
And what about yourself, my reader? How does your individual history read with regard to your relationship with God. When God made man He made him for Himself. Man is not a brute, like a dog; neither is he a god. He is a being set in intelligent relationship with God, and answerable to Him. He is not an independent being; he is responsible to God. How have you answered to His claims upon you? Is it your own will or His you have done? Have you sought His glory or your own? Have you lived to please Him or yourself? Have you lived to His satisfaction or the satisfaction of yourself? Has He found in you all He could have desired? Have you in the distrust of your own mind kept an open ear to hear what He had to say to you, and have you done it with all your heart? If your dog paid as little attention to you as you have paid to God, what would you have done to him? If he shunned your presence, pleased himself, regarded neither you nor your commands, how would you have treated him? You say he knows better than disobey. But that means he knows better than you. Yet you are not his creator. You did not give him life and breath. God gave you your existence. He made you for Himself, and you have lived to yourself. Yet you think He ought to be content. Let me tell you that you would not be content with one who owed you less than you owe to God, and yet paid you more than you have even sought to pay Him. Looked at from God’s side, your life has been a tremendous failure.
You see I do not charge you with being a drunkard, or a murderer, or a thief, or with any gross evil. Looked at from a human standpoint your life may be blameless―you may even have it spiced with a little bit of religion; but if you are unsaved, I would seek to bring before you the solemn fact that you have lived to yourself and have done your own will, as if there were no God to be taken into account; and if you have kept yourself moral and respectable, you have done it because it suited you to do it, because it was to your own advantage, and not with any pure desire to please God; and yet because you have done this, and as you say pay your way, and do no harm to anybody, He must of necessity wink at your practically atheistical life. And yet if you had a dependent who treated you after the same fashion, you would soon have a day of reckoning. How long is this to go on?
You need not tell me you do not know what His will is. If you had had the least desire to do it He would not have left you ignorant of it. You have never gone to Him in the confession of your ignorance. Wherever there rises the cry, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do,” from an honest heart in this world, light is given from heaven. I believe if you consider your godless career calmly for ten minutes in the solitude of your own room as in the presence of God, you will soon be down in the dust crying for mercy.
But perhaps my reader owns to a careless life, and hopes to turn to Christ someday. And may I ask what time have you set for this? How is it you have tarried so long? I very much question if six months ago you would have made an agreement to remain up to the present Christless. Do you think you would? Dare you make such a promise now? Let us see how it would look: ―
I call upon heaven, earth, and hell, angels, men, and devils, to witness that I hereby solemnly promise and declare that I will not on any account seek Christ for salvation for six months after this date.
Date,
Signed,
No, you would not sign this-not for worlds. You would not have done it six months ago; yet here you are at the end of the time Christless, without any pledge binding you to remain so. What a fool you are to be going on thus from day to day, and week to week, and year to year, getting through your short, life, until it may be published someday that such an one “fell ill about a week ago. It looked like a cold, but the doctor did not pronounce upon it. He was expected to be well in a day or two, and not even the patient himself was alarmed about it; but the third day there was a decided change for the worse, and in spite of everything that could be done, he gradually sank until yesterday morning, when he passed away. He is to be buried tomorrow.”
Passed away! PASSED AWAY! AWAY! WHERE? I thought you said he was to be buried tomorrow. Yes, his body is to be buried; but he is gone from his body. The body is the house in which he lived—the tenant is gone. There is such a thing as being “absent from the body.” For a believer this is “present with the Lord.” While we are at home in the body we are alive in this world, and in association with things here, with our families, relatives, and neighbors, in our life of responsibility on earth. But absent from the body means either “present with the Lord,” or in misery. Lazarus left his body and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. Also the penitent thief went absent from the body to paradise with Jesus. But Dives, when his body was being tenderly consigned to its resting-place, his spirit was in the flame of torment.
Then in the resurrection the body will be raised up. Believers will be raised up in incorruption, and in power, and in glory. All must get their bodies. The unsaved will also be raised. Here is an account of their resurrection and judgment.
“I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell gave up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20: 11-15). “The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:88But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)), This is in eternity, where change of circumstances never comes.
But there is no judgment for believers. They are saved through the work of Christ. In a day of grace, and while alive on earth, they saw themselves as guilty and condemned sinners in the sight of a holy God, and they humbled themselves before Him. They heard of Jesus, of His precious blood, and how God had found His perfect delight in Him; that sin had been condemned in His cross; that God in mighty grace to man had sent Him to remove the barrier which stood in His way of blessing sinners; that in His cross the thing which offended God had received its judgment, and that God had raised Him from the dead and glorified Him to His own right hand in heaven; that the blood was upon the mercy-seat, and that God’s Word was COME; that there was no demand being made upon man for anything―he was to come empty-handed in the confession of his deep sinfulness; and that coming through faith in Jesus and His precious blood he was made welcome. “There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents.” The invitation was to all-sinners of every class, color, and degree. The gates of eternal salvation are thrown open to all. Many have come. They were glad to hear the blessed news. They were not cast out. He will receive you. Do not put it off, I beseech you. “The pleasures of sin for a season” will not compensate you for an eternity of misery. There is no time to be lost. “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart.”
“Where will you spend eternity?
This question comes to you and me!
Tell me, what shall your answer be―
Where will you spend eternity?
Eternity! Eternity!
Where will you spend eternity?”
J. B-D.