WHAT a solemn fact it is, that in these days of so much gospel preaching, and in the midst of so much boasted progress, souls—alas! thousands, and tens of thousands—are being deceived! Deceived for time; deceived for ETERNITY. Yes, dear reader, perhaps you may be one thus blindly rushing on with nothing but death and judgment before you, and soon to meet an insulted and offended God, when there will be no Daysman to come between to put His hand on both. No Mediator, no mercy-seat, no one in the whole universe, to shelter, to screen, to protect you; but you will stand naked and undone, and exposed to the fearful avalanche of divine wrath, to be driven speechless outside into outer darkness, where forever and forever and forever there will be “weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Perhaps my reader may say, “I THINK I am all right; I HOPE I am; I WISH to be so.” But thinking, hoping, and wishing will be of no avail before the great white throne. In that awful moment millions of souls, who thought, hoped, and wished, in their brief span of existence here, will be undeceived; their eyes will then be opened, and if they have one word to say, it will be to themselves― “How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.” Yes, my reader, if you have not come to Jesus you are being fatally deceived― deceived by Satan, deceived by the world, and, worst of all, deceived by yourself; for “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” And now I affectionately ask you, Can you leave your imperishable interests― the interests of your never-dying soul―for another moment, or to a death-bed? A death-bed you may never have; for you may be snatched away suddenly without a single warning, and as the tree falls so it must lie. Neither can you reckon upon a day, an hour, or a moment of life, and yet you are occupied and pleased with a few bubbles of this world, which burst as you grasp them, and you are neglecting, despising, and refusing those eternal realities because you believe the lie of Satan, who substitutes shadow for substance, darkness for light, bitter for sweet, death for life, and time for eternity; and you are deceived as to the character of the world and its pleasures by which you are engrossed. I repeat the words: “Be not deceived.” And mark what follows: “God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Oh, my reader, do you know that you are mocking God? Do you know that you are sowing, and that there is a fearful reaping-time at hand? that you will reap with interest? that for a paltry moment of sinful pleasure you will reap an eternity of woe and misery? May God the Holy Ghost open your eyes, that you may be no longer deceived, but that you may see the Light of Life, and that you may come to Him and have life; for “he that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Have you the Son of God?
H. W. S.